JAMES  A.  LITTLE 


WHAT  I  SAW 


ON  THE 


OLD    SANTA  FE  TRAIL. 


Caravans  of  Prairie 

Schooners,  Forty  Wagons,  Five-hundred 

Oxen,   Millions  of  Buffaloes,   Thousands  of  Wild  Horses, 

Antelopes.  Big  Grey  Wolves  and  Cayotes,  Prairie  Dog  Towns  and  Jack 

Rabbits.  Rattle  Snakes,  Lizards  and  Centepedes,  Savage 

Indians  and  Mexicans,    Strange    Sights 

Crossing  the  Desert. 


A  Condensed  Story  of  Frontier  Life 
Half  a  Century  Ago. 


BY 


JAMES  A.  LITTLE. 
// 

CARTERSBURG,    INDIANA. 


THE  FRIENDS  PRESS 
PLAINFTELD.      INDIANA. 


u 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  in  the 

year  of  our  Lord  1904, 

BY  JAMES  A.  LITTLE. 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at 
Washington. 


BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 


/s  dedicated  to  the  now 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  (Thayer)  Mendenhall, 
daughter  of  the  Superintendent  of  the 
Quaker  Mission  in  1854. 


A  STATEMENT. 


It  is  a  strange  coincident  that  I  started  on  my  trip  across 
the  plains  on  the  first  of  May  1854  and  it  so  happened  that 
fifty  years  later,  on  the  first  day  of  May  1904,  the  date  of 
issue,  I  tell  my  story  for  the  first  time  in  book  form.  Of 
course  I  have  occasionally  referred  to  my  experience,  giv- 
ing short  accounts  of  the  trip,  but  I  found  that  it  was  a 
difficult  matter  to  interest  people  by  telling-  in  a  disconnect- 
ed way,  short  sections  of  a  long  sfcory.  The  story  given  in 
this  book,  as  relates  to  the  Old  Santa  Fe  Trail,  was  writ- 
ten for  the  Danville,  (Ind.)  Republican,  at  the  request  of 
editor  Julian  D.  Hogate  to  whom  I  am  under  many  obliga- 
tions for  kindness  shown  and  for  space  so  generously  giv- 
en in  his  paper.  It  was  not  my  intention  when  this  story 
was  written  to  put  it  in  book  form.  I  was  somewhat  sur- 
prised at  the  interest  with  which  it  was  being  read  and 
being  commented  upon  by  the  public,  who  previously  was 
not  aware  that  I  had  ever  been  outside  of  my  native  state. 

I  was  in  Danville  a  short  time  after  a  number  of  chap- 
ters had  appeared  and  was  congratulated  by  almost  all  of 
my  friends,  many  expressions  of  surprise  were  heard.  I 
was  advised  by  a  number  of  professional  and  business 
men  to  put  my  story  into  book  form.  I  became  more  than 
ever  interest  myself,  and  asked  Mr.  Hogate's  advice  in  the 
matter.  He  hesitated  somewhat,  but  said  I  would  have  to 
elaborate  and  make  a  larger  book  by  continuing  the  story. 
I  took  his  advice  and  buckled  down  to  writing  agaia,  I 


have  written  about  the  Quaker  Mission  Family;  Incidents 
of  Indian  Life;  Customs  of  Indians;  Indian  Churches;  A 
Visit  to  Shotos;  Allotment  of  Indian  Lands;  Annuity  Mon- 
ey Accruing  from  Sale  of  Lands;  Indian  Twins,  as  well  as 
giving  a  brief  biography  of  men  whom  I  consider  were  the 
three  greatest  heroes  figuring  in  the  "Border  Ruffian"  or 
Kansas  Troubles.  First,  I  name  Richard  Mendenhall,  who 
believed  the  pen  mightier  than  the  sword.  Second,  I  give  a 
condensed  biography  of  Old  John  Brown— his  birth  and 
career  as  a  business  man  in  Ohio,  his  daring  acts  in  Kan- 
sas; insurrection  at  Harper's  Ferry;  his  execution  at 
Charleston  on  the  scaffold,  November  2nd,  1859.  A  con- 
densed history  of  Jim  Lane,  giving  place  of  his  birth,  mil- 
itary and  civil  standing  and  the  part  he  took  in  the  Kansas 
Border  Ruffian  Warfare,  and  his  death. 

JAMES  A.  LITTLE. 


*  *  *  *  1  felt  that  a  great  respon- 
sibility was  resting  on  me  for  withhold- 
ing information  that  would  enlighten  future 
generations.  My  mind  became  greatly  ex- 
ercised in  the  matter  so  that  I  could  scarcely 
,  sleep  at  night.  But  finally  a  faint  voice 
seemed  to  whisper  and  say,  "Write  a  look! 
Write  a  book!" 


PREFACE 

What  I  have  written  in  this  series  of  articles  is 
the  plain  truth.  I  doubt  if  a  man  could  be  found 
living  today  who  crossed  the  plains  on  the  old 
Santa  Fe  road  in  as  early  day  as  I.  Some  of  the 
facts  recorded  here  have  never  been  recorded  in 
any  history  of  Kansas  or  any  account  of  the  old 
road.  There  can  never  again  be  a  repetition  of  the 
scenes.  There  will  never  again  be  great  caravans 
of  prairie  schooners  slowly  wending  their  way 
across  "the  great  American  desert. "  The  old 
Santa  Fe  road  is  almost  obliterated.  Cities  and 
towns  have  sprung  up.  Dwellings,  school  houses 
and  churches  decorate  the  prairie.  Horace  Greely 
crossed  the  plains  six  years  later  than  I.  In  his 
comments  he  said:  "There  were  more  buffalo  in 
sight  than  there  are  cattle  in  Illinois."  So  I 
offer  no  other  reason  for  this  personal  history  of 
pioneer  days. 

JAMES  A.  LITTLE. 


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. 

It  is  with  pleasure  that  I  acknowledge  to 
Julian  D.  Hogate  my  appreciation  of  kindness 
manifested  by  him  in  giving  space  in  the  Dan- 
ville Republican,  for  the  publication  of  my 
articles  relating  to  my  experiences  on  the 
Old  Santa  Fe  Trail.  I  also  thank  the  profes- 
sional business  men  and  citizens  of  Danville, 
and  elsewhere  for  advice  and  encouragement 
in  putting*  my  articles  in  book  form. 

JAMES  A.  LITTLE. 


Contents. 


PAGE 

CHAPTER  I. 

The  Days  Before  the  War.    First  Introduction J-to 
Human  Slavery  in  Missouri.  11 

CHAPTER  II. 

Toward  the  Old  Trail.     Mr.  Little  had  more  Experi- 
ence with  Slavery.  17 

CHAPTER  III. 

Starting   on    the   Trail.    Experience    in    Selecting 
Oxen  for  the  Wagons.  22 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Toward   the    South-west.    Peace   Made.    The   old 
Trail.  28 

CHAPTER  V. 

To    the    South-west.      The  Train    Meets    Indians. 
Millions  of  Buffalo.  33 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Into  the   Desert.     Hard  Times  on  the  Trail.     The 
Blessings  of  Water.  39 

CHAPTER    VII. 

Nature's    Secrets.     Bones   of   Men   and     Animals 
Along  the  Trail.  43 


PAGE. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
The  Trail  in  the  Desert.     Wolves  and  Wild  Horses 

Vary  the  Monotony.  46 

CHAPTER  IX 
'  At    Albuquerque.     The  Sugar    Passes  Inspection. 

Spanish  Waltzing.  50 

CHAPTER  X. 

Homeward  Bound.    An   Affair   of   Honor    Settled. 
Cattle  Lost.  5i 

CHAPTER    XI. 
The  Buffalo  Country  Reached.     Fresh  Water  Found. 

Sport  with  the  Buffalo  Renewed.  57 

CHAPTER  XII. 
Hunting    Buffalo  the  Great  Sport   of   the  Western 

Country.  .  61 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Small-pox  Breaks  out.     Mr.  Little  Deserts  the  Train 
and  Travels  Alone.  66 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

A  Dash   from   the  Indians.      When  A  Lone  Trader 
Found  and  Food  Secured.  70 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Geting  Back  to    Civilization.       The   Kaw   Agency 
and  the  Quaker  Mission  Reached.  73 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

The  Kansas  Trouble.    The  First  Assault  ever  made. 
Border  Ruffians.    Beginning  of  the  Civil  War.  70 

CHAPTER  XVIL 

Gets   his  Money.    Ten   Dollars  Bonus   for  Driving 
Without  Swearing.  7& 


PAGE. 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
Life   at  the   Mission.     Amusing  Incidents  with  the 

Indians.  81 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

Quaker  Mission  Family.  A  Visit  to  Shotos.  An 
Effort  to  Civilize  Indian  Girls.  84 

CHAPTER  XX. 

Indians  Recieve  Land  and  Money.  Dr.  Barker 
Superintendent  of  Baptist  Mission.  Indian 
Camp  Meeting.  Indian  Twins.  89 

CHAPTER  XXI 

Emigrants  Aid  Society.  Contest  Between  the  North 
and  South  Begins.  Changing  the  Name  of  Town.  94 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
Richard  Mendenhall  a  Quaker  Hero.  100 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 
L.  X.  Aubra  A  Great  Character.  106 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
Old  John  Brown.  110 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
James  Lane.  123 


The  Old  Santa  Fe  Trail. 


It   wound    through    strange   scarred   hills. 

down  canons  lone 
Where  wild  things    screamed,    with    winds 

for    company; 

Its  mile-stones  were  the  bones   of  pioneers. 
Bronzed,  haggard   men,    often  with    thirst 

a-moan, 
Lashed  on   their  beasts   of   burden   toward 

the   sea; 

An  epic  quest  it  was  of  elder  years, 
For  fabled  gardens   or  for  good,    red  gold, 
The  trail  men  strove   in  iron  days  of  old. 

To-day  the  steam-god  thunders  through  the 

vast, 
While  dominant  Saxons  from  the  hurtling 

trains 

Smile  at  the  aliens,  Mexic,    Indian, 
Who  offer  wares,    keen-colored,  like  their 

past; 

Dread  dramas  of  immitigable  plains 
Rebuke  the  softness  of  the  modern  man; 
No  menace,  now,  the  desert's  mood  of  sand: 
Still  westward  lies  a  green  and  golden 

land. 

For,  at  the  magic  touch  of  water,  blooms 
The  wilderness,  and  where  of  yore  the  yoke 
Tortured  the  toilers   into  dateless  tombs, 
Lo!  brightsome  fruits  to  feed  a  mighty  folk. 

Richard  Burton  in  February  Century 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE  DAYS  BEFORE  THE  WAR. 


INTRODUCTION    TO   HUMAN    SLAVERY    IN    MISSOURI. 

When  I  was  a  boy,  I  always  had  a  great  desire  to 
go  west,  not  to  fight  the  Indians  but  to  see  the 
country.  It  did  not  seem  to  me  that  it  would  be 
wise  after  I  had  learned  all  there  was  to  be  learned 
in  Indiana  to  remain  any  longer.  Already  I  had 
traveled  a  great  deal.  I  went  with  my  father  to 
mill  to  Indianapolis.  We  drove  an  ox  team  and 
stayed  over  night  at  Underwood's  Mill.  My  father 
took  me  with  him  to  Jeffersonville  on  a  visit.  In 
1847  I  hired  to  Wilfred  Ungles,  of  Belleville,  and 
helped  to  drive  the  last  hogs  that  were  driven  to 
Cincinnati  from  Hendricks  county.  We  were  treat- 
ed to  a  visit  to  Old  Mother  English's  museum  and 
saw  the  infernal  regions.  The  noted  flood  of  '47 
was  on  when  we  arrived.  We  came  down  the  river 
to  Madison  on  a  boat  and  took  steam  cars  for  In- 
dianapolis. We  started  in  the  morning  and  reach- 
ed Indianapolis  late  in  the  evening  and  then  walked 
out  home,  arrived  home  about  midnight.  My  rec- 


12  WHAT  I  SAW  ox  THE 

ollection  is  that  we  were  gone  about  three  weeks. 
Tingles  had  bought  the  hogs  of  the  farmers  on 
credit  and  never  did  pay  for  them.  He  pretended 
he  was  broken  up,  but  he  took  considerable  money 
with  him  when  he  left  the  country.  I  worked  on 
the  Vandalia  road  for  a  while,  my  father  having  a 
small  construction  contract.  When  the  road  was 
completed  to  Terre  Haute,  I  started  west.  There 
were  no  railroads  in  Illinois  and  passengers  and 
mail  were  conveyed  by  stages.  I  started  to  walk 
to  Iowa.  The  roads  were  very  muddy  and  the 
wind  was  very  strong.  The  prairies  were  thinly 
settled.  In  some  sections,  it  was  eight  or  ten  miles 
between  houses  which  were  mostly  along  streams 
and  timber.  Growing  tired  of  walking,  I  staged  it 
part  of  the  way,  but  I  might  as  well  have  walked, 
for  the  stage  did  not  go  as  fast  as  I  could  walk.  At 
last  we  reached  the  Mississippi  river  and  crossed 
over  to  Burlington,  Iowa.  There  I  bought  a  stage 
ticket  to  Mt.  Pleasant,  twenty-six  miles  west. 
When  the  stage  reached  the  hotel  next  morning,  it 
was  crowded.  Another  young  fellow  and  I  got  on 
top  with  the  trunks.  When  the  stage  ascended  the 
hill,  there  was  an  open  prairie  and  the  wind  had  a 
fair  sweep  with  a  heavy  snow  storm.  My  partner 
got  inside  the  stage  but  I  remained  on  top  until  I 
was  almost  frozen  when  I  got  inside  and  lay  across 
the  laps  of  the  ladies.  I  took  a  severe  cold  which 
terminated  in  bronchitis  from  which  I  have  never 
recovered.  I  visited  many  places  including  Des 
Moines  which  was  then  only  a  small  town.  I  took 
the  measles  at  Crawfordsville  and  came  near  dying. 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  13 

The  doctors  treated  the  case  as  if  it  were  fever.  I 
made  them  put  me  in  a  barrel  of  warm  water  which 
brought  the  measles  out  and  saved  my  life. 

The  following  autumn,  I  drifted  to  north  eastern 
Missouri.  Nearly  half  the  people  were  from  the 
northern  states  but  there  were  a  good  many  slaves 
scattered  over  the  country.  One  day  while  walk- 
ing along  the  road,  a  negro  with  a  yoke  of  oxen 
came  along  on  a  load  of  lumber.  He  had  been  to 
mill  and  in  some  manner  had  procured  some  whis- 
key. He  had  taken  enough  to  make  him  talk.  He 
asked  me  to  ride.  He  asked  me  where  I  was  from. 
I  told  him  I  was  from  Indiana.  He  asked  if  In- 
diana was  a  slave  or  free  state.  Then  he  asked  me 
what  I  thought  about  slavery  and  he  quoted  Scrip- 
ture at  considerable  length.  He  offered  to  share 
his  whiskey  but  I  told  him  that  I  never  touched  it. 
I  afterwards  learned  that  the  negro  belonged  to  an 
old  judge  who  was  very  hard  on  his  slaves.  I  re- 
mained a  number  of  days  in  this  locality  and  one 
day  I  was  invited  by  the  man  with  whom  I  was 
stopping  to  go  to  a  barn  raising  at  the  judge's.  I 
saw  the  negro  at  the  barn  raising  but  he  never 
raised  his  head  to  look  at  me.  I  learned  after- 
wards that  it  was  a  lucky  thing  that  I  did  not  speak 
to  him.  Two  or  three  days  later  my  host  asked  me 
if  I  knew  there  was  an  effort  in  the  neighborhood 
to  form  a  mob  to  lynch  me.  I  asked  why.  He  said 
I  was  a  stranger  and  had  been  seen  riding  with  a 
negro.  He  referred  to  a  crowd  that  had  been  seen 
at  his  house  on  Sunday  evening.  He  said  the  pur- 
pose of  their  visit  was  to  draw  me  out  to  ascertain 


14  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

if  I  was  an  Abolitionist.  I  had  remarked  that  I 
was  opposed  to  slavery.  They  knew  there  was  an 
underground  railway  from  Missouri  into  northern 
Iowa  and  in  trying  to  find  out  if  I  was  connected 
with  it,  they  had  asked  me  if  I  wras  in  certain  towns 
along  the  line.  It  so  happened  that  I  had  been  in 
Crawfordsville,  Iowa,  which  was  a  main  station 
and  I  remembered  that  runaway  slaves  were  con- 
cealed in  a  cellar  under  Mr.  Rankin's  house.  My 
host  said  that  Mr.  Huntsucker,  one  of  the  men  who 
questioned  me  on  that  Sunday  evening  had  can- 
vassed the  county  to  raise  a  mob  but  there  were 
about  as  many  northern  people  as  southern  and  as 
he  had  met  opposition  he  had  dropped  the  matter. 
I  saw  Mr.  Huntsucker  several  times  afterwards 
and  he  seemed  to  show  great  respect.  I  learned 
the  lesson  to  be  careful  how  I  talked,  as  strangers 
were  closely  watched. 

Late  in  the  fall  I  decided  to  return  to  Indiana, 
and  walking  to  the  Mississippi  I  crossed  it,  and  by 
wagon  and  stage  reached  Terre  Haute  and  there 
took  the  Vandalia  for  Cartersburg.  My  friends 
looked  on  me  as  a  much  traveled  man.  I  had  been 
to  what  was  then  the  far  west. 

After  a  time  I  decided  to  return  to  the  west.  I 
I  went  to  St.  Louis  and  then  walked  to  Indepen- 
dence, ten  miles  east  of  Kansas  City  by  way  of  St. 
Charles,  where  it  is  said  old  Daniel  Boone  died. 
I  followed  the  meanderings  of  the  Missouri  river 
to  Independence,  Mo.  There  is  as  rich  a  country 
along  the  Missouri  river  as  can  be  found  in  Ameri- 
ca. The  people  had  slaves  and  raised  much  hemp. 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  15 

Hemp  raising  was  profitable  as  it  gave  employment 
all  the  year  to  the  slaves.  Men  and  womfen  were 
worked  in  fields  together.  Of  course  there  was  an 
overseer  who  rode  a  horse,  went  armed  and  carried 
a  whip.  It  seemed  cruel  to  me  as  I  was  not  accus- 
tomed to  such  sights.  One  of  the  strangest  char- 
acteristics of  the  slave  holders  was  their  hospital- 
ity. I  could  always  depend  on  getting  to  stay  over 
night  and  seldom  had  a  bill  to  pay  in  the  morning. 
I  never  allowed  them  to  be  more  generous  than  I 
in  the  payment  of  a  bill.  If  they  knocked  off  half  I 
knocked  off  the  other  half.  The  hospitality  of  the 
slave  holders  extended  only  to  those  who  were  not 
in  need  and  not  too  deser  /ing  needy.  They  were 
very  fond  of  company  to  pass  the  time  away  and 
they  liked  to  learn  of  the  customs  of  northern  peo- 
ple. One  day  as  I  was  walking  along  the  road,  a 
clever  looking  young  man  drove  up  behind  me  in  a 
buggy  and  invited  me  to  ride.  I  rode  with  him  sev- 
eral miles  to  the  home  of  his  mother.  I  accepted 
his  invitation  to  stay  over  night  and  also  remained 
over  Sabbath,  of  course.  I  preferred  not  to  break 
theSabbath.  In  those  days  I  liked  to  observe 
'meSe  days  as  days  of  rest.  When  we  drove  up  in 
front  of  his  mother's  house,  three  slaves  raced  out 
and  begged  the  privilege  of  taking  care  of  the  horse. 
He  gave  the  preference  to  the  one  who  reached  the 
buggy  first.  Their  contest  showed  how  they  were 
trying  to  please  him  and  win  his  confidence.  The 
young  man's  mother  owned  a  large  number  of 
slaves  whose  cabins  were  on  both  sides  of  the  door 
yard.  There  were  negroes  of  all  ages  and  sizes. 


16  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

Little  black  children  swarmed  out  like  children  out 
of  a  school-house. 

I  can  not  better  describe  it  than  to  call  it  a  Mid- 
way. Sunday  morning  was  the  time  the  old  lady 
issued  rations.  It  was  an  interesting  sight.  A 
large  table  was  placed  in  front  of  the  smoke-house 
in  the  rear  of  the  dwelling.  The  bacon  and  meal 
were  brought  out  and  the  old  lady  with  a  large 
butcher  knife  in  hand  called  them  singly  and  by 
families  to  coDie  and  received  their  weekly  allow- 
ance. A  very  old  negress  was  called.  She  look- 
ed as  if  she  might  be  a  hundred  years  old.  I 
never  saw  a  better  example  of  humility.  The 
mistress  with  an  evident  air  of  scorn  on  her  count- 
enance handed  the  aged  woman  a  scanty  allow- 
ance with  the  exclamation:  "Take  this;  and  mind, 
if  you  do  not  make  this  last  until  next  Sunday 
you  will  have  to  starve  again."  The  mistress 
questioned  me  a  good  deal  about  the  customs  of 
northern  people.  She  asked  me  if  white  men  mar- 
ry "niggers,"  and  if  "niggers"  went  to  church 
with  white  women.  I  told  her  it  was  not  the  cus- 
tom in  my  country.  She  said  she  knew  it  was  so, 
that  a  northern  man  had  told  her  so.  She  asked 
me  if  northern  women  do  their  own  work.  I  told 
her  they  did.  Said  she:  "Well  they  can  not  be 
respectable  then."  She  was  nursing  a  little  grand- 
child whose  mother  was  dead.  The  little  one  had 
been  burned  and  she  was  treating  it.  She  ex- 
claimed: "If  I  had  no  colored  woman  to  do  ray 
house- work,  what  would  I  do  with  this  little  afflict- 
ed child?" 


CHAPTER  II. 
TOWARD  THE  TRAIL. 


MR      LITTLE      HAD      MOKE       EXPERIENCES       WITH 
SLAVERY. 

Monday  morning,  I  shouldered  my  knapsack 
and  trudged  along.  The  adage,  "Time  is  money," 
had  no  application  in  my  case.  As  I  passed  through 
Pettis  county,  I  learned  that  a  young  slave  had 
been  burned  at  the  stake  for  alleged  crime  of  hav- 
ing murdered  a  family  of  three  or  four  people  in 
order  to  rob  the  house.  His  accuser  was  his  young 
master.  The  punishment  was  a  public  affair  in 
daylight  with  no  attempt  to  conceal  the  identity  of 
those  who  took  part  in  it.  The  negro  pleaded  his 
innocence  to  the  last.  When  I  reached  the  country 
a  great  reaction  had  taken  place  and  most  people 
believe  him  innocent  and  many  thought  his  young 
master  guilty.  The  following  summer  when  I  was 
crossing  the  plains,  I  was  on  guard  one  night  with 
a  man  we  called  Tom.  We  were  guarding  cattle. 
After  they  had  filled  themselves  and  lain  down, 
Tom  and  I  got  into  conversation.  He  told  me  his 
home  was  in  Pettis  county,  Mo.  I  told  him  of 


18  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

passing  through  the  county  and  related  the  story 
of  the  negro.  He  said  he  knew  all  about  it  for  he 
had  led  the  mob  but  he  wanted  no  more  experi- 
ences of  that  kind. 

I  reached  Independence,  Mo.,  on  the  last  day  of 
March.  The  place  was  laid  out  by  the  Mormons  at 
an  early  day.  Independence  is  ten  miles  below  Kan- 
sas City  and  some  three  or  four  miles  from  the 
river.  "West-port  was  a  lively  village  south  of  Kan- 
sas City.  It  was  a  great  trading  point  for  the 
Indians.  Kansas  City  was  only  a  boat  landing 
or  trading  post.  There  were  some  old  ware- 
houses on  the  river  and  the  business  was  nearly  all 
done  by  the  three  McGee  brothers.  All  these 
towns  were  on  the  frontier  and  Independence  was 
the  principal  starting  point  for  people  going  to 
California.  The  idea  prevailed  that  a  large  train 
of  wagons  had  to  cross  the  plains  as  a  protection 
from  the  Indians.  California  immigrants  would 
start  from  the  states  in  the  fall  and  winter  at  Inde- 
pendence so  as  to  start  together  as  soon  as  there 
was  grass  enough.  So  many  immigrants  camped 
around  Independence  that  a  great  market  wras 
afforded  for  the  farmers  and  the  merchants.  The 
immigrants  were  compelled  to  pay  high  prices  and 
money  was  plentiful.  Nearly  every  man  on  the 
frontier  had  been  to  California.  Lots  of  gold  was 
brought  back  and  put  into  circulation.  It  was  rare- 
ly that  any  money  save  gold  was  seen. 

My  intention  was  to  get  in  with  a  train  as  helper 
and  cross  to  California.  It  was  a  month  too  soon 
for  trains  to  start  and  I  was  advised  to  go  to  work 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  19 

farm  so  as  to  toughen  up  before  starting.  So  I 
-  hired  to  a  farmer  to  work  a  month.  He  had  recent- 
ly married  a  woman  who  owned  land  and  slaves.  I 
went  home  with  him  and  ate  supper  and  breakfast 
with  him  and  his  wife.  He  put  me  to  work  with 
the  negroes  cutting  corn  stalks.  I  worked  until 
noon,  and  when  I  went  to  the  house  for  dinner  he 
stood  in  the  door  when  I  attempted  to  enter  and 
told  me  I  would  take  my  meals  with  the  slaves  who 
occupied  quarters  in  a  room  near-by.  I  stepped 
back  and  told  him  if  he  would  step  out,  I  would 
thrash  him  but  he  did  not  come.  Pretty  soon  he 
sent  out  a  white  man  and  paid  me  and  I  left  but  I 
missed  my  dinner  that  day.  I  went  ten  miles  west 
and  hired  to  a  man  named  Manion  whose  farm  was 
on  a  highway  on  the  Missouri  and  Kansas  line. 
Mr.  Manion  was  a  loud  Baptist  preacher.  He  had 
a  good  farm  which  he  worked  with  slaves.  He  also 
carried  on  a  large  repair  shop.  He  did  an  exten- 
sive business  repairing  old  Mexican  wagons.  The 
Mexicans  were  experts  in  the  way  of  mending  al- 
most any  part  of  their  wagons  with  rawhide  with 
the  hair  on  and  wrapped  spokes,  felloes,  single 
trees  or  any  other  part  very  tight  with  it  and  when 
the  strips  dried,  they  shrunk  and  dented  the  wood. 
There  was  a  wagon -load  of  rawhide  whang  in  a  pile 
at  his  shop.  Mr.  Manion  had  four  slaves,  three 
men  and  a  boy.  One  of  the  men  worked  in  the 
shop  and  the  others  worked  on  the  farm.  The  first 
work  I  did  was  to  break  an  eighteen  acre  field  with 
a  pair  of  rnules,  they  walked  very  fast  and  the 
plow  was  large.  The  field  was  square  and  perfect- 


20  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

ly  level.  I  commenced  on  Monday  morning  and 
finished  Saturday  evening.  When  Mr.  Manion 
asked  me  how  I  was  getting  along,  I  told  him  I 
had  finished  and  he  could  hardly  believe  me  as  he 
said  his  slaves  never  finished  it  in  less  than  two 
weeks.  I  remained  with  him  until  planting  time. 
A  white  man  was  always  boss  when  working  the 
slaves  so  I  had  the  honor  of  being  overseer.  The 
slaves  called  me  "Massa  Little.'7  They  took  a  great 
liking  to  me  as  I  had  treated  them  like  white  men. 
Manion  had  not  had  the  negro  boy  whose  name 
was  Dabney  very  long  but  had  recently  secured 
him  at  St.  Louis  by  trading  a  mulatto  for  him. 
There  was  considerable  of  a  romance  connected 
with  this.  One  rainy  day,  Dabney,  Manion' s  own 
boy,  Charley,  about  the  age  and  size  of  Dabney, 
and  myself  were  shelling  corn  and  Dabney  gave  us 
a  history  of  his  life.  He  said  his  parents  were 
free  and  lived  near  Quincy,  Ills.  He  said  he  was 
playing  in  the  road  with  a  ball  and  two  men  came 
in  a  carriage  and  picked  him  up  and  drew  knives 
over  him  and  told  him,  if  he  made  any  noise  they 
would  kill  him.  They  drove  rapidly  to  the  river 
at  Quincy  where  a  boat  was  about  to  start  to  St. 
Louis.  They  sold  him  to  a  slave-buyer.  The 
mulatto  that  Manion  had  taken  to  St.  Louis  was 
born  of  a  white  woman  in  Kentucky  and  was  smug- 
gled off  and  bound  to  a  man  south  of  where  Manion 
lived  before  the  mulatto  was  twenty-one  years  of 
age.  The  man  died  and  his  widow  sold  the  two  or 
three  years  that  he  lacked  of  being  free  to  Mr. 
Manion  who  worked  him  a  year  or  two  over  his 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  21 

time.  He  was  said  to  be  a  handsome,  intelligent 
mulatto.  When  he  served  out  his  time,  Mr.  Man- 
ion  proposed  to  buy  him  a  suit  of  clothes  and  take 
him  to  St.  Louis  and  recommend  him  to  a  big 
hotel  as  a  'bus-driver.'  That  suited  the  mulatto 
and  he  went  with  Manion  but  instead  of  taking 
him  to  a  hotel,  he  showed  him  to  the  buyer  who 
owned  Dabney.  He  swapped  the  mulatto  for 
Dabney  and  $500  to  boot  and  invested  the  money 
in  a  fine  carriage  which  he  brought  back  with 
Dabney.  I  had  the  honor  of  riding  to  church  to 
hear  Rev.  Manion  preach.  The  deal  of  Mr.  Man- 
ion  was  known  by  the  neighbors  who  regarded 
it  as  a  shrewd  trick.  I  often  heard  the  expression 
that  Manion  sent  one  damned  free  negro  south. 
Manion' s  son,  Charley,  promised  to  write  to  Dab- 
ney's  folks  but  I  never  knew  whether  he  did. 
There  was  a  great  antipathy  against  free  negroes. 
I  was  later  informed  that  Manion  went  with  a 
train  across  the  plains  and  that  he  died  on  the  way 
back  and  was  buried  there. 


CHAPTER  III. . 
STARTING  ON  TRAIL. 


EXPERIENCE      IN       SELECTING       OXEN       FOR       THE 
WAGONS. 

In  a  letter  from  home,  I  learned  that  Richard 
Mendenhall,  of  Plainfield,  had  been  sent  to  the 
Friends  Mission  as  a  teacher,  also  that  Cyrus  Rog- 
ers had  secured  an  appointment  as  boss  farmer  to 
teach  the  Indian  boys  how  to  farm.  The  Mission 
was  four  or  five  miles  west  of  Manion's.  But  be- 
fore leaving  Missouri  I  will  give  another  experience. 
I  found  many  people  on  the  frontier  afflicted  with 
what  was  known  as  the  "prairie  scratches."  In 
Indiana  we  called  it  itch  which  I  named  it  after  I 
had  diagnosed  my  owrn  case.  It  was  no  secret  and 
no  disgrace  for  nearly  everybody  had  it.  It  culti- 
vated a  habit  of  industry  and  gave  employment  to 
many  idle  hands.  I  concluded  to  try  to  rid  myself 
of  it.  So  I  consulted  an  old  gentleman  and  he  told 
me  to  boil  down  a  lot  of  poke  root  into  a  strong  tea 
and  bathe  all  over  in  it.  I  dug  the  roots  and  stole 
an  old  pot  and  crossed  the  road  into  Kansas  into  a 
dense  thicket.  It  was  just  the  location  I  thought 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  23 

to  start  a  pest  house.  I  made  the  tea  and  removed 
my  clothing  and  gave  myself  a  swabbing  all  over. 
Welts  raised  all  over  me.  I  raved  and  rode  the 
bushes  trying  to  get  relief.  I  finally  cooled  down 
and  got  better  and  finally  well  and  then  I  do  not 
think  a  microbe  was  left,  but  the  treatment  came 
near  finishing  me.  I  tell  this  in  the  interest  of 
science. 

When  I  left  Manion's,  I  went  to  the  Friends  Mis- 
sion. There  were'  three  Missions  a  few  miles  south- 
west of  Kansas  City — Methodists,  Baptists  and 
Friends —  and  they  were  all  in  the  Shawnee  Indian 
country.  At  the  Friends  Mission  I  had  a  cordial 
greeting  from  old  friends.  There  were  many  re- 
ports of  depredations  of  Indians  on  the  plains  and 
I  was  advised  not  to  cross  to  California.  But  I  con- 
cluded to  cross  with  Majors  &  Russell,  who  were 
heavy  freighters  to  New  Mexico.  I  engaged  with 
them.  Russell  was  a  merchant  of  Jefferson.  City; 
Majors  a  farmer.  He  had  a  fine  farm  and  owned  a 
number  of  slaves.  He  was  also  a  Presbyterian 
minister.  When  I  approached  him  to  hire  he  said 
he  was  going  to  hire  all  of  his  men  on  condition 
they  were  not  to  swear.  He  said  he  was  a  minister 
and  that  he  felt  he  was  to  a  considerable  extent  re- 
sponsible for  the  conduct  of  the  men  in  his  employ. 
He  said  he  would  discharge  a  man  who  swore.  He 
then  asked  me  if  I  thought  that  I  could  drive  a 
team  across  the  plains  and  back  without  swearing. 
I  told  him  I  thought  I  could.  Several  men  who  had 
come  to  hire  were  standing  around  and  he  asked 
one  of  them,  an  Irishman,  the  same  question,  "Do 


24  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

you  think  you  can  drive  a  team  across  the  plains 
and  back  without  swearing?"  Said  Pat:  "Yis,  I 
can  drive  a  team  to  hell  and  back  without  swear- 
ing." The  Irishman  was  not  employed. 

I  learn  from  the  history  of  Buffalo  Bill  that  at 
this  time  he  was  herding  cattle  for  Majors.  He  was 
then  a  boy  of  twelve  or  fifteen  and  this  was  his  first 
work.  The  wagon  train  with  which  I  was  employ- 
ed, started  the  first  of  May  after  the  grass  was  in 
proper  condition  to  graze.  When  the  time  came  to 
start,  the  wagons  and  cattle  were  brought  together 
southwest  of  Kansas  City.  The  wragons  were  cor- 
raled  and  the  cattle  were  herded  on  the  prarie.  A 
corral  is  formed  by  the  fencing  in  of  a  lot  with  wag- 
ons. For  instance,  two  wagons  are  driven  abreast 
just  wide  enough  apart  to  leave  a  space  as  wide  as 
a  comnion  farm  gate.  Then  just  behind  each  wag- 
on another  wagon  is  driven  so  the  near  front  wheel 
is  close  to  the  off  hind  wheel  of  the  wagon  in  front 
and  the  fore  wheel  and  the  hind  wheel  are  chained 
together.  Each  wagon  widens  the  corral  its  width. 
Then  the  wagons  are  brought  together  in  the  same 
way,  only  the  off  front  wheel  is  chained  to  the  near 
hind  wheel  of  the  wagon  in  front.  So  thirty  or  forty 
wagons  form  a  large  lot  or  corral.  When  the  oxen 
or  mules  are  driven  in,  guards  are  stationed  at  the 
gateway  to  keep  them  in.  Our  train  consisted  of 
forty  large  prarier  schooners. 

There  were  ten  old  wagons  and  thirty  new  ones 
sent  out  by  the  government  for  the  use  of  the 
army  post.  Each  wagon  was  as  large  as  four 
ordinary  wagons  and  carried  a  load  averaging 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL,  25 

three  tons.  We  started  with  over  500  oxen.  Six 
yoke  pulled  each  wagon  and  we  took  a  lot  of  extras 
for  recruits  when  any  died.  Most  of  our  oxen  had 
never  been  yoked  and  were  wild.  There  were  a 
few  pairs  that  were  well  broken,  so  if  a  man  could 
get  a  pair  of  wheelers  and  a  pair  of  leaders  he 
could  fill  in  four  middle  yoke  with  unbroken  oxen 
and  they  would  have  to  keep  in  line.  Most  of  the 
men  were  experienced.  They  had  crossed  the 
plains  every  summer  and  sometimes  twice  a  year. 
The  first  time  the  cattle  were  yoked,  it  was  a 
race  to  get  the  best  broken  oxen.  The  experienced 
men  could  pick  them  out  at  a  glance.  They  show- 
ed scratches  on  their  horns  and  mates  kept  to- 
gether. Every  man  had  his  pick  the  first  day  and 
he  kept  his  first  selection,  but  he  had  a  right  to 
exchange  for  any  of  the  unselected  cattle.  So 
there  was  a  good  deal  for  an  inexperienced  man  to 
learn.  When  our  cattle  were  driven  in  the  corral 
the  first  day  we  started,  it  was  a  sight.  It  did  not 
do  to  show  cowardice.  Each  man  with  a  yoke 
rushed  in  among  the  big  fellows  and  it  looked  as  if 
each  man  would  be  trodden  under  foot.  Cattle 
swayed  from  side  to  side  and  piled  up  on  each 
other.  Men  mixed  up  all  over  the  corral.  Ex- 
perienced men  had  no  fear  and  had  the  sleight 
of  yoking  any  they  wanted.  I  tired  to  show  cour- 
age too.  I  put  the  yoke  on  an  old  one  and  he  tore 
around  and  got  loose,  another  kicked  me  and  an- 
other horned  at  me.  So  I  got  out  where  I  had 
room  to  dodge  any  way.  I  finally  got  hold  of  an 
old  one  and  yoked  him  with  a  little  fellow  that 


26  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

seemed  to  be  gentle.  They  did  not  match,  but 
what  did  I  care  if  they  were  gaited  alike.  I  want- 
ed a  pair  of  leaders  and  I  was  greatly  disappoint- 
ed when  I  found  that  neither  had  any  experience. 
When  the  other  men  got  their  teams,  they  helped 
me  to  get  my  six  yoke  hitched  to  the  wagon  and 
I  did  not  have  an  ox  that  had  even  been  yoked 
before.  We  were  on  a  vast  prairie  with  no  ob- 
structions. I  turned  them  loose.  The  exhibition 
was  equal  to  Buffalo  Bill's  Wild  West  show.  Some 
bucked,  others  plunged.  They  could  not  run  be- 
cause their  notions  were  different.  But  I  finally 
got  them  to  follow  the  other  wagons  by  running 
from  one  side  to  the  other  like  driving  up  the 
cows.  After  the  first  day  I  got  them  broke  to 
follow. 

My  wagon  was  the  rear  one.  I  grew  tired  of 
walking  and  crawled  in  the  rear  end  of  my  wagon 
and  climbed  to  the  front  which  was  six  or  eight 
feet  high.  I  rode  several  miles  in  my  exalted 
position.  I  yelled  at  the  boys.  I  asked  them  why 
they  did  not  ride.  I  was  quite  jubilant.  I  whistled, 
kept  time  by  thumping  my  heels  on  the  side  of  the 
wagon.  I  sang.  About  that  time  the  front  of  the 
train  reached  a  long  rocky  road  where  the  road 
led  in  a  meandering  way  down  the  river  bottom. 
I  could  see  ahead  that  the  wagons  were  strung  out 
and  as  they  approached  the  top  of  the  hill,  the  men 
would  stop  and  set  their  brakes.  I  thought  I  was 
doing  well  and  that  I  would  not  be  in  any  hurry  to 
get  out.  I  supposed  that  when  the  team  in  front 
stopped,  my  team  would  stop.  But  I  was  mis- 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  27 

taken.  They  did  not  give  me  time  to  get  out.  I 
was  in  a  bad  way  perched  up  in  front.  My  oxen 
ran  with  all  their  might,  pell  mell  over  rocks,  hub- 
bing  the  wagons  that  were  strung  out  quarter  of  a 
mile  from  the  top  to  the  bottom  of  the  hill.  I 
never  did  get  such  a  cursing.  Every  man  on  my 
way  to  the  bottom  of  the  hill  gave  me  a  sample  of 
his  choicest  oaths.  At  places  the  road  was  narrow 
with  barely  room  to  pass.  In  the  rough  places  the 
wagon  very  nearly  upset  several  times.  I  yelled 
at  my  team  but  not  a  brute  paid  any  attention. 
Neither  did  I  have  a  chance  to  leave  my  post. 
Show  cowardice?  I  should  have  been  honored  as 
a  great  leader  for  I  started  in  the  rear  and  landed 
in  front,  but  a  man  may  advance  too  fast.  That 
was  my  experience,  for  I  did  not  have  a  friend  in 
the  train.  I  was  hated  by  all.  They  called  me 
that  blanked  Hoosier.  I  concluded  to  redeem 
myself  by  showing  kindness.  My  progress  waa 
slow,  but  that  was  my  only  show. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


TOWARD  THE  SOUTHWEST. 


PEACE   WON   THROUGH   FIGHTING — THE  OLD  TRAIL.. 

At  that  time  Leavenworth  City  had  not  been 
thought  of  but  Fort  Leavenworth  was  a  depot  for 
army  supplies.  All  freight  was  brought  there  by 
boats.  All  freight  for  the  territories  was  unloaded 
at  Kansas  City  but  the  army  freight  was  unloaded 
at  Fort  Leavenworth.  Our  wagons  were  nearly  all 
loaded  with  sugar  and  we  had  some  coffee,  bacon 
and  spices.  We  had  from  fifty  to  seventy  hundred 
to  the  wagon.  We  also  had  a  provision  wagon  to 
supply  the  men  in  the  train.  Our  progress  was 
very  slow  at  first  as  the  oxen  were  not  trained  to 
pull  heavy  loads.  In  places  the  roads  were  bad  and 
the  rain  was  heavy.  The  wheels  would  go  down  in 
the  mud  to  the  axle  and  we  would  double  and  treb- 
le our  teams.  Sometimes  we  unloaded  a  wagon 
two  or  more  times  within  the  length  of  the  train 
which  was  quite  lengthy.  Once  we  had  thirty-two 
yoke  of  oxen  to  a  wagon  and  then  failed  to  pull  it 
out.  We  would  wind  them  around  like  a  whip  lash 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  29 

and  swing  them  out  on  a  line  and  their  weight 
would  either  pull  the  load  out  or  break  the  chains. 
Generally  the  latter.  We  had  great  trouble  herd- 
ing our  cattle  as  they  were  not  used  to  each  other. 
Rain  fell  almost  constantly  and  the  nights  were 
dark.  Many  times  we  ran  after  our  cattle  at. night 
when  it  was  too  dark  to  see  them.  We  followed 
them  by  the  noise  they  made  running.  Our  only 
chance  to  sleep  was  to  lie  on  the  ground  and  fre- 
quently water  ran  under  us.  A  man  does  not  know 
what  he  can  endure. 

I  felt  that  I  had  gained  the  confidence  of  the  boys 
by  showing  them  kindnesses  but  another  misfor- 
tune was  awaiting  me  wiiich  gave  me  a  worse  back- 
set than  ever.  When  wre  reached  the  crossing  of 
the  Wakarusha  river,  a  narrow  passage  went  down 
a  steep  bank  to  the  water.  The  wagons  ahead  had 
all  crossed  successfully.  The  river  was  about 
three  or  four  feet  deep.  When  my  wagon  started 
down  the  bank,  the  off  wheel  struck  a  bump  and 
the  wagon  being  loaded  top-heavy,  it  turned  into 
the  river.  It  came  near  catching  me  but  I  escaped. 
The  wagon  was  loaded  with  sugar  which  was  piled 
up  in  the  middle  of  the  river.  Some  of  it  remained 
in  the  wagon.  The  train  stopped  and  the  boys 
came  back  and  we  carried  the  sugar  to  the  oppo- 
site side  and  reloaded  the  wagon  but  I  sweetened 
the  river  and  the  wagon  dripped  molasses  for  a 
week.  We  camped  on  the  bank  of  the  river  where 
a  small  train  was  camping.  The  wagon  master  told 
me  I  could  go  back  to  the  States.  He  said  he  had 
hired  a  man  in  my  place  who  made  application 


30  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

for  a  job.  I  had  noticed  the  strange  man.  I  told 
the  wagon-master  all  right,  but  I  told  him  the  fel- 
low he  had  employed  was  an  out-law;  that  he  would 
be  sorry  that  he  had  employed  him,  but  he  paid  no 
attention  to  what  I  said.  I  had  made  arrangement 
with  a  small  team  that  was  camping  near  our  camp 
to  return  with  it.  But  I  was  surprised  next  morn- 
ing when  our  wagon-master  came  to  me  and  told 
me  to  stay  with  him,  that  he  thought  me  a  good  fel- 
low who  had  struck  a  streak  of  bad  luck.  I  soon 
learned  that  the  strange  man  who  I  warned  him  to 
watch,  had  stolen  the  best  mule  in  the  train  and 
skipped.  Neither  man  or  mule  was  ever  heard  of. 
Our  train  was  divided  into  six  messes  with  six  or 
seven  in  a  mess.  About  all  the  men  were  from 
Missouri.  They  were  a  rough  set,  some  of  them 
afterwards  becoming  Border  Ruffians.  It  was  my 
misfortune  to  be  in  the  worst  mess  in  the  train.  I 
was  much  imposed  on  for  a  long  time.  No  act  of 
mine  was  appreciated.  They  tried  to  make  a  ser- 
vant out  of  me.  Some  of  the  men  in  the  other  mess- 
es saw  I  was  mistreated  and  told  me  I  would  have 
to  fight  before  I  would  get  justice.  They  told  me 
to  fight  even  if  I  got  whipped  every  time  as  I 
would  thus  make  friends.  One  evening  while  I 
was  stewing  a  tea  for  a  slight  indisposition,  Frank 
Ketchem,  one  of  my  messmates  came  around  and 
kicked  my  fire  over.  I  told  him  I  would  make 
another  fire  and  if  he  molested  it  I  would  whip 
him  or  take  a  licking.  As  soon  as  I  rebuilt  my 
fire,  he  came  around  and  commenced  to  kick  it. 
As  he  was  stooping  over,  I  caught  him  by  the  hair 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIT,  31 

and  ran  backwards,  kicking  him.  He  crowded  me 
backwards  and  I  fell,  he  landing  on  me.  He  got 
me  by  the  throat  with  his  teeth  and  shut  off  my 
wind.  They  took  him  off  and  he  sat  down.  The 
wagon-master  came  running  up  to  ask  what  was 
the  trouble.  Ketchem  said:  "Nothing;  only  I 
have  been  flogging  Hoosier  a  little." 

I  gathered  up  a  wagon  lever  and  drew  it  over  his 
head  and  I  made  him  beg  like  a  dog.  After  that 
I  had  friends.  The  Baker  boys  said  they  would 
see  that  I  was  better  treated  and  that  gave  me 
encouragement.  I  started  in  to  show  that  I 
would  not  allow  any  man  to  impose  on  me  and 
after  my  mess  saw  I  had  friends,  they  began  to 
treat  me  with  respect.  We  experienced  a  hard 
time  on  account  of  the  soft  and  muddy  roads.  The 
boys  who  were  experienced  in  crossing  the  plains 
said  we  would  have  an  easier  time  when  we  got  to 
the  old  Sante  Fe  road.  It  seemed  a  long  way  but  we 
finally  reached  it,  before  we  got  to  Council  Grove. 
The  old  Sante  Pe  road  was  said  to  be  the  best 
natural  road  in  the  world,  considering  the  length, 
which  was  near  a  thousand  miles.  It  led  from 
Independence,  Mo.,  to  Sante  Fe,  New  Mexico.  It 
was  nature's  ideal  road,  never  having  been  im- 
proved by  man.  No  bridges  were  needed  for  all 
streams  were  easily  forded.  It  was  a  much  better 
road  than  any  macadamized  road.  In  its  entire 
length  there  was  not  a  hill.  Even  in  crossing  the 
mountains  before  reaching  Sante  Fe  or  Albuquer- 
que, nature  seemed  to  have  arranged  the  great 
canyons  in  a  way  that  our  trains  were  never  ob- 


32  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

s  true  ted.  Here  on  the  old  trail,  half  a  century 
ago,  caravans  of  heavily  loaded  wagons  accom- 
panied by  United  States  soldiers  or  other  armed 
forces  wended  their  way  slowly  to  the  southwest 
carrying  supplies.  It  was  a  hazardous  undertak- 
ing for  the  Indians  were  bold  and  savage.  On  the 
first  of  every  month  a  U.  S.  mail  coach  left  Inde- 
pendence and  Sante  Fe.  The  coach  was  drawn  by 
six  horses  or  mules.  A  man  rode  horseback  by  tl:e 
side  of  the  horses  to  whip  them  up.  A  guard  of 
six  or  eight  men  rode  and  slept  in  the  coach.  Our 
wagon-master  knew  where  we  would  meet  the 
coach  from  Sante  Fe  and  where  the  coach  from 
Independence  would  pass  us.  They  would  halt  a 
minute  to  tell  us  the  news. 

The  old  trail  will  never  be  obliterated.  I  see 
that  a  movement  has  been  made  by  Kansas  to 
establish  by  the  aid  of  the  school  children  mile 
stones  al  >ng  tha  trail  in  every  district. 


CHAPTER  V. 


TO  THE  SOUTHWEST. 


THE    TRAIN     MEETS     INDIANS — MILLIONS    OF    BUF- 
FALOES. 

Council  Grove  was  a  Kaw  Indian  Agency  with 
an  Indian  village  attached.  Mr.  Hays,  the  agent, 
had  a  store  and  supplied  the  Indians  with  their 
needs.  We  camped  near  the  village.  The  Kaws 
were  said  to  be  a  very  cowardly  tribe  and  for  that 
reason  they  were  hated  by  all  the  other  tribes. 
Whenever  the  other  tribes  gave  them  a  scare, 
they  flocked  to  the  agency  for  protection.  They 
had  great  confidence  in  an  agent  of  the  United 
States. 

A  lot  of  Kaws  loitered  around  our  corral  and 
one  of  the  bucks  tried  to  steal  some  coffee.  One  of 
our  men  promptly  gave  him  a  whipping  with  a 
blacksnake  whip.  When  we  passed  on,  it  seemed 
straEge  to  know  that  all  of  the  Indians  we  met 
seemed  to  know  of  this  for  they  would  say:  "Whip 
um  Kaw."  After  leaving  Council  Grove,  we  pass- 


34  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

ed  through  some  of  the  largest  towns  I  was  ever 
in.  The  population  ran  into  thousands.  The  in- 
habitants seemed  to  be  a  very  industrious  class. 
The  towns  all  had  the  same  name — Dogtown. 
These  little  prairie  dogs  are  interesting  little  ani- 
mals. They  live  in  holes  some  eight  or  ten  feet 
apart.  The  hole  commences  in  the  top  of  a  mound 
and  goes  straight  down.  The  animals  are  not  of 
the  dog  family  but  get  their  name  from  their 
bark.  We  would  strike  at  them  with  our  whips 
but  they  were  too  quick.  We  could  not  make  all 
of  them  go  in  their  holes  for  there  were  always 
sentinels  out  that  kept  up  the  barking.  We  some- 
times killed  them  and  made  soup  but  it  was  not 
firstclass  soup.  Many  snakes  and  owls  lived  in 
they  towns  and  naturalists  say  they  all  live  in  the 
same  hole.  But  this  is  a  mistake  as  the  owls  and 
snakes  live  in  abandoned  holes.  Naturalists  have 
also  claimed  that  these  dog  towns  are  laid  out  in 
streets  as  accurately  as  any  town  but  this  is  not 
so.  One  can  arrange  the  trees  in  the  woods  by 
imaginary  lines. 

When  we  were  within  a  few  miles  of  Great  Bend 
en  the  Arkansas  River,  we  met  the  U.  S.  mail  com- 
ing in.  The  men  told  us  there  was  a  large  band  of 
Comanche  Indians  in  camp  on  the  river.  They 
cautioned  us  to  look  out  for  these  Indians  as  they 
showed  signs  of  hostility.  They  said  they  believed 
that  the  object  of  the  Indians  was  to  rob  our  train 
which  was  the  most  valuable  that  crossed  the 
plains  that  season.  Indians  are  generally  well  in- 
formed. They  have  a  mysterious  way  of  communi- 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  35 

eating  with  other  tribes.  We  at  last  came  in  sight 
of  the  tents  of  the  Comanches  and  soon  a  large 
number  of  the  Indians  came  out  to  meet  us.  We 
selected  a  captain  who  ordered  us  to  load  our  guns 
and  fall  into  march  in  front  of  the  train.  When 
they  came  up,  we  motioned  for  them  to  not  come 
near  us.  They  divided,  a  part  going  to  the  south 
and  a  part  to  the  north.  It  looked  as  if  they  meant 
to  close  in  on  us  from  both  sides.  I  never  was  so 
badly  scared.  The  old  chief  came  riding  along 
and  gave  signs  of  friendship.  So  we  allowed  him 
to  approach  us  and  he  made  signs  that  they  only 
wanted  to  beg.  They  came  nearer  until  they  were 
all  around  us.  They  begged  for  "whisk,  shug  and 
back."  I  never  saw  such  beggers.  Our  orders 
were  to  give  them  nothing  for  if  we  did  they  would 
only  become  worse.  After  they  had  begged  through 
the  train,  they  would  run  their  ponies  to  the  front 
and  beg  through  again.  Our  wagon-master  gave 
the  chief  a  cup  of  sugar  and  he  tied  it  in  the  cor- 
ner of  the  blanket.  We  afterwards  learned  that 
their  intention  was  to  kill  off  another  small  tribe 
that  had  been  trespassing  on  their  hunting 
grounds.  They  had  on  their  war  paint  and  were 
armed  with  bows  and  arrows.  They  were  killing 
buffalo  which  were  grazing  north  of  where  we 
were  camped.  They  jerked  the  meat  over  the  fire 
without  sal  tin  git  and  put  it  up  in  rolls  and  some 
times  in  sacks.  We  secured  a  lot  of  jerked  meat 
once  and  it  was  excellent.  Such  meat  did  not  create 
thirst.  There  were  hundreds  of  dead  buffaloes 
along  the  road.  Some  were  dried  with  their  hide 


36  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

and  hair  on  and  were  in  a  good  state  of  preservation 
on  account  of  the  dry  atmosphere.  Bones  of  buf- 
faloes were  scattered  all  over  the  plains.  When 
we  reached  Big  Bend  or  Great  Bend  as  it  now 
called  (it  is  the  name  of  a  town)  where  the  Arkan- 
sas river  makes  a  great  bend  to  the  south,  the 
Sante  Fe  trail  leading  a  long  ways  up  the  river  on 
the  north  side  before  reaching  the  ford,  there 
were  millions  of  buffaloes  on  the  north  side  of  the 
river.  The  whole  plains  were  a  mass  of  buffaloes 
as  far  as  the  eye  could  see.  Words  could  not  de- 
scribe the  sight.  They  did  not  bawl  as  cattle  but 
gave  a  deep  grunt  which  blended  into  a  roaring 
like  distant  thunder.  Thousands  were  marching 
back  and  forth  to  the  river  to  quench  their  thirst. 
They  did  not  even  try  to  get  out  of  our  way. 

At  first  it  was  a  wonderful  thing  to  shoot  a  buf- 
falo, especially  to  a  few  of  us  who  had  never  seen 
anything  of  the  kind.  After  a  time  \ve  lost  interest 
in  shooting  the  great  beasts.  Only  while  we  were 
out  of  meat  did  we  en  joy  the  sport.  I  heard  some 
of  the  boys  say  there  was  more  sport  in  shooting 
squirrels.  Buffaloes  are  governed  more  by  scent 
than  by  sight.  If  the  wind  is  blowing  from  them 
to  the  hunter,  he  may  approach  very  near  to  them. 
But  if  the  wind  is  blowing  from  the  hunter  to 
them,  they  will  stampede  and  run  when  they  are 
miles  away.  One  strange  thing  was  that  there 
were  never  any  cows  and  calves  seen  on  or  near 
the  thoroughfare.  Unless  we  went  back  behind 
the  ridges,  we  never  saw  any  but  old  bulls.  I  re- 
marked to  the  boys  that  the  buffaloes  would  never 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  37 

be  exterminated.  I  said  they  were  so  numerous 
that  the  United  States  army  could  not  kill  them  as 
fast  as  they  multiplied.  I  said  the  Creator  had 
given  them  a  country  that  would  never  be  inhabited 
by  white  people.  I  claimed  it  was  the  economy  of 
Nature  to  give  the  Indians  a  country  where  all 
their  wants  were  provided  for  them  and  a  country 
where  the  white  man  could  not  intrude  on  them. 
Horace  Greeley  said  of  the  buffaloes  that  they 
were  not  indigenous  to  the  plains  but  that  they 
had  been  driven  from  the  timber  country.  He 
called  attention  to  the  fact  that  all  animals  except- 
ing the  buffalo  were  protected  by  their  color  which 
was  a  drab  or  grey  which  harmonized  with  the 
ground  or  grass  in  which  they  concealed  them- 
selves. 

Thousands  of  large  gray  wolves  were  among  the 
buffalo.  Some  were  as  large  as  St.  Bernard  dogs. 
When  a  buffalo  was  wounded,  a  gang  of  wolves 
would  pursue  him  and  cut  him  down  by  cutting  the 
hamstrings.  Often  while  on  guard  at  night  these 
wolves  would  make  my  hair  raise.  Our  cattle 
would  lie  down  twice  every  night  to  rest.  After 
filling  with  grass,  they  would  lie  down  about  ten 
o'clock  and  remain  quiet  until  two  o'clock  when 
one  would  arise  and  moan.  Then  we  had  to  look 
out  or  they  would  be  strung  out  for  a  mile  before 
we  knew  it.  During  the  time  the  cattle  were  quiet, 
we  would  lie  down  and  take  a  nap.  We  had  our- 
selves trained  so  we  could  awake  at  the  proper 
time.  I  propped  my  head  up  on  my  arm  so  if,  I 
slept  soundly,  my  head  would  drop  and  arouse  me. 


WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 


I  have  often  been  startled  by  a  pack  of  wolves  set- 
ting up  a  howl  only  a  few  rods  away.  The  noise 
was  deafening.  I  could  not  have  heard  my  own 
voice  if  I  had  called  out. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
INTO  THE  DESERT. 


HARD  TIMES  ON    THE    TRAIL — THE    BLESSINGS    OP- 
WATER. 

The  Arkansas  river  is  rather  a  strange  stream. 
It  runs  in  sand  that  is  constantly  changing  and 
shifting.  Where  the  Sante  Fe  road  crosses  it,  it 
looks  to  be  forty  rods  wide  but  it  is  very  shallow. 
A  man  could  almost  wade  it  with  rubber  boots 
without  getting  his  feet  wet.  The  constant  wash- 
ing of  the  fine  sand  keeps  the  bottom  as  level  as  a 
floor.  The  water  is  swift  and  forms  ripples  from 
one  side  to  the  other.  If  a  person  stands  in  one 
place  the  water  will  wash  out  a  great  hole  in  the 
sand  and  undermine  him  and  let  him  down.  We 
doubled  teams  when  crossing  the  river  and  had  to 
keep  moving  or  the  sand  would  wash  and  let  our 
wagons  sink.  A  strange  feature  of  the  crossing 
was  that  the  wagons  seemed  to  be  running  over 
stones.  The  wagon  tongues  would  jerk  and  wrench 
in  a  fearful  manner.  When  we  crossed  the  river* 
we  parted  from  the  buffalo  and  entered  the  Great 
American  desert.  All  was  changed.  There  were 


40  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

thousands  of  antelopes.  Sometimes  they  would 
jump  up  near  the  train,  run  a  little  distance  and 
stop  to  look  at  us.  The  boys  would  grab  their  guns 
from  the  side  of  their  wagons  and  shoot  them.  We 
had  a  regular  hunter  in  our  train  whose  business 
was  to  keep  us  supplied  with  meat.  We  also  killed 
many  jack  rabbits  and  made  soup  of  them.  When 
a  jack  rabbit  jumped  up,  the  boys  would  all  yell 
and  if  the  rabbit  ran  along  the  train  we  would  be 
sure  to  get  it. 

The  country  was  quite  sandy  and  seemed  to  be 
the  home  of  the  wild  sunflower  and  cacti,  of  which 
there  are  many  varieties.  The  surface  of  the 
ground  in  places  was  completely  covered  with  the 
common  round  cactus.  There  is  a  large  conic  va- 
riety three  or  four  feet  high;  also  a  tree  cactus  that 
grows  as  large  as  the  largest  apple  tree.  We  used 
the  dead  trunks  for  fuel.  About  all  the  varieties 
bear  a  small  purple  oblong  pear  which  we  tried  to 
consider  edible  but  the  fuzz  on  them  made  our  lips 
and  tongues  sore.  There  were  thousands  of  lizards 
running  in  every  direction.  Some  of  the  boys  prac- 
ticed killing  them  with  their  whips  as  they  passed. 
As  a  result  the  ground  was  strewed  with  dead  liz- 
ards. Horned  frogs  were  a  novelty.  They  were 
about  the  size  of  a  common  toad  but  did  not  hop, 
but  ran  like  a  mouse.  They  had  a  sharp  horn  on 
the  top  of  their  heads. 

After  leaving  the  Arkansas,  there  was  no  water 
except  in  stagnant  ponds.  Sometimes  there  were 
dead  amimals  in  these  ponds. 

About  the  only  way  we  could  drink  the  water  was 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  41 

to  make  strong  coffee  out  of  it  and  then  it  tasted 
as  much  of  the  filth  as  of  the  coffee.  One  time  we 
traveled  all  day  and  all  night  and  the  next  day  to 
reach  water.  Our  tongues  were  so  parched  from 
thirst  that  we  could  hardly  talk.  Once  the  boys 
took  advantage  of  my  ignorance.  We  passed  over 
a  ridge  and  came  in  fair  view  of  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  lakes  I  ever  beheld.  The  boys  ahead 
yelled  back:  "Hoosier,  we  are  coming  to  v/ater." 
How  my  heart  rejoiced  when  I  saw  the  water  ahead. 
It  looked  to  be  a  mile  or  so  distant.  I  was  greatly 
disappointed  when  we  did  not  seem  to  be  getting 
any  nearer  it.  I  at  last  found  that  it  was  an  illu- 
sion— a  mirage.  I  afterwards  saw  many  such 
sights — balloon  ascensions,  American  flags;  cities, 
etc.  The  first  water  we  reached  was  the  Cimirone 
Springs  on  a  stream  by  that  name.  There  were 
three  springs — lower,  middle  and  upper.  We  were 
almost  perishing  for  water.  With  our  tin  cups  in 
hands  we  surrounded  the  springs  where  the  cold, 
sparkling  water  was  gushing  from  under  the  bank. 
Our  instructions  were  to  drink  but  little  at  first 
and  more  by  degrees  and  finally  all  we  craved.  I 
never  before  had  appreciated  the  value  of  good  wa- 
ter. The  unanimous  expression  was  that  good  pure 
water  was  the  greatest  luxury  in  the  world.  But 
how  many  are  there  who  have  given  the  matter  a 
thought?  Oxen  and  mules  had  suffered  for  water 
as  much  if  not  more  than  we,  and  we  could  not  keep 
them  from  drinking.  They  drank  a  lot  of  alkali 
water  from  the  little  pools  and  several  of  the  oxen 
died.  Next  morning  when  we  drove  in  the  cattle 


42  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

from  a  little  valley,  we  scared  up  dozens  of  rattle- 
snakes. We  could  hear  the  rattles  hum.  Several 
of  the  cattle  were  bitten,  their  legs  swelling  badly, 


CHAPTER  VII. 


NATURE'S  SECRETS. 


BONES  OF  ANIMALS  AND    MEN  ALONG  THE   TRAIL, 

I  have  neglected  to  speak  of  two  young  men  who 
went  with  the  train  as  passengers  for  the  benefit 
of  their  health.  One  was  a  clerk  in  Major's  store  and 
the  other  was  a  young  doctor.  They  looked  very  ill 
and  both  were  said  to  have  consumption.  They 
did  not  start  with  us,  but  joined  us  after  we  reached 
the  trail  about  a  hundred  miles  or  so  on  our  way. 
They  were  brought  to  our  train  by  easy  convey- 
ance by  friends.  They  brought  their  own  outfit — 
blankets,  suitable  food,  etc.  One  had  a  pacing 
mule  and  the  other  a  pacing  pony.  They  could  not 
ride  much  in  the  saddle  at  first,  but  each  had  a 
place  to  rest  in  a  wagon.  By  degrees  they  grew 
stronger  and  finally  rode  their  mounts  nearly  all 
the  time.  They  would  take  their  guns  and  hunt 
and  they  with  our  regular  hunter,"  kept  us  well  sup- 
plied with  fresh  meat  which  we  did  not  have  to  salt. 
A  ham  hung  on  the  end  of  a  wagon  would  dry  in  the 
wind  about  as  quick  as  we  would  chip  it  off.  By 


44  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

the  time  we  crossed  the  plains,  these  men  were 
sound  and  well.  The  doctor  located  in  Sante  Fe.  I 
saw  the  other  young  man  in  the  fall  on  his  way  to 
Jefferson  City,  his  home.  He  was  well.  I  make 
the  above  statements  to  show  the  importance  of  out 
door  living.  I  have  heard  it  stated  that  it  was  im- 
possible for  a  sick  person  to  cross  the  plains  in  a 
wagon,  living  in  the  open  air,  and  not  get  well,  es- 
pecially persons  with  stomach  or  lung  trouble. 

We  crossed  over  what  was  then  called  Horned 
Alley.  It  was  considered  one  of  the  most  danger- 
ous plaees  on  the  route.  There  were  two  tracks 
about  four  rods  apart.  Our  train  was  divided  into 
two  sections.  The  sections  traveled  side  by  side  so 
as  to  be  able  to  corral  our  wagons  in  a  much  short- 
er time  in  case  of  an  attack  by  the  Indians.  Our 
great  government  wagons  formed  excellent  forti- 
fications but  fortunately  we  were  not  molested. 

The  wind  on  the  plains  blew  almost  constantly 
from  the  southwest.  I  was  on  the  north  track  and 
suffered  from  the  sand  stirred  up  by  the  south 
section.  My  eyes  were  almost  ruined  by  the  sand, 
which  greatly  inflamed  them.  Every  time  we  came 
to  water,  I  washed  my  eyes  and  once  I  washed  them 
in  a  puddle  of  alkali  water  which  almost  put  them 
out. 

Our  wagon  master  seldom  joked  or  smiled.  When 
questioned,  his  answers  were  given  in  a  gruff  man- 
ner. One  day,  as  the  train  was  about  to  start,  he 
cast  his  eyes  upward  and  remarked:  "We  will  see 
snow  before  two  hours."  I  did  not  question  him 
for  I  knew  I  would  receive  a  short,  indefinate  an- 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  45 

swer.  But  I  wondered  what  he  meant,  and  if  the 
old  fool  thought  it  would  snow  when  there  was  not 
a  cloud  in  sight  and  the  sun  was  pouring  down  un- 
til it  would  almost  cook  an  egg.  But  in  the  course 
of  an  hour  when  the  train  passed  over  a  ridge,  I 
came  to  a  full  understanding  of  his  words  when  we 
came  in  full  view  of  a  snow-capped  mountain.  It 
seemed  strange  that  when  we  were  suffering  from 
the  heat  we  were  in  sight  of  perpetual  snow.  It 
glistened  like  silver  as  the  sun  shown  on  it. 

All  the  camping  places  had  a  name.  The  boys 
frequently  spoke  of  Plum  Bute,  and  I  had  an  idea 
it  was  a  noted  place.  But  when  we  reached  it,  I 
found  that  it  was  a  small  mound  with  a  little  patch 
of  plumb  trees  on  it.  Another  camping  place  was 
Mule  Head.  There  was  a  monument  built  of  skulls 
of  mules.  I'suppose  a  train  of  mules  had  been 
caught  in  a  blizzard  and  had  frozen  to  death  and 
some  enterprising  philanthropist  had  built  the 
monument  from  the  skulls.  It  was  ten  or  twelve 
feet  high.  One  place  we  passed  was  a  great  bone 
yard.  The  earth  was  literally  strewn  with  human 
bones.  No  one  could  explain  their  presence  and 
the  probability  was,  there  had  been  a  battle  or  a 
massacre  by  the  Indians,  no  telling  how  long  ago. 
The  bones  were  all  bleached.  &  — ^ ! 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


THE  TRAIL  IN  THE  DESERT. 


WOLVES  AND  WILD  HORSES  VARY  THE  MONOTONY. 

Some  of  the  most  interesting  scenes  in  crossing 
the  plains  are  the  mounds.  They  can  be  seen  from 
a  great  distance,  and  often  it  took  us  days  to  reach 
them  after  they  came  in  sight.  I  have  no  doubt 
some  can  be  seen  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  miles. 
They  look  like  great  monuments.  A  person  not  ac- 
customed to  the  country  can  not  form  much  idea  of 
distance.  The  first  mound  I  saw,  came  to  view  as 
we  passed  to  an  elevated  ridge.  The  man  in  front 
asked  me  how  far  I  thought  it  was.  I  told  him  I 
thought  it  was  about  a  half  mile,  but  it  might  be 
farther.  I  was  told  it  was  twenty  or  thirty  miles. 
It  took  us  over  a  day  to  reach  it,  and  our  wagon 
master  said  it  was  ten  miles  off. 

Some  of  the  men  who  made  a  business  of  cross- 
ing the  plains  took  advantage  of  the  ignorence  of 
the  new  men  who  took  only  one  ox  gad.  The  old 
men  tied  a  bundle  on  the  side  of  their  wagons  and 
after  we  started  we  could  not  get  any  more  when 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  47 

we  new  men  broke  ours,  and  the  old  men  would 
charge  us  twenty-five  cents  for  them.  I  grew  tired 
of  paying  the  price.  We  camped  one  noon  appar- 
ently at  the  foot  of  Rocky  Mound.  I  saw  some 
small  cedars  growing  on  the  side  next  to  us.  They 
were  the  first  trees  I  saw  since  I  was  on  the  plains. 
I  told  Vol  McMilligan  that  if  he  would  loan  me  his 
knife,  I  would  go  up  and  cut  some  gads.  He  gave 
me  his  knife  and  I  heard  some  of  the  boys  chuckle 
as  I  started.  The  cedars  looked  to  be  about  forty 
rods  away.  I  thought  I  would  strike  the  bottom 
of  the  hill  after  going  eight  or  ten  rods,  but  I  kept 
going  and  I  kept  going  and  I  could  not  see  I  was 
any  nearer.  I  determined  to  go  on  and  started  to 
run  but  finally  had  to  give  it  up  and  return,  as  I 
saw  the  wagons  roll  out.  I  was  an  hour  or  so  in 
reaching  the  wagons.  The  men  said  the  mound  was 
ten  miles  away  and  it  would  have  been  impossible 
for  me  to  have  reached  the  cedars.  Besides  they 
were  thicker  than  my  body. 

We  occassionally  saw  herds  of  wild  horses,  but 
they  were  shy  and  always  saw  us  before  we  saw 
them.  Wolves  followed  us  for  days,,  and  some- 
times for  weeks,  keeping  at  a  safe  distance.  When 
the  train  started  in  the  morning,  we  could  see  them 
closing  in  oil  our  camp  to  get  the  scraps. 

The  first  ranch  we  reached  in  New  Mexico,  was 
owned  by  a  man  named  Waters.  His  ranch  was  on 
Dog  creek.  The  first  persons  we  met  were  two 
women  and  a  man.  I  was  driving  in  front  and  was 
never  more  embarassed,  I  was  ragged  dirty  and 
in  not  a  very  presentable -condition,  but  did  not 


48  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

realize  my  condition  until  I  met  those  two  women. 
If  I  could  have  evaded  those  women,  I  certainly 
would  have  done  so.  We  camped  on  the  creek  near 
the  ranch.  Waters  owned  a  number  of  Mexican 
slaves  or  peons  as  they  were  called.  If  a  Mexican 
got  into  debt,  he  was  a  slave  until  he  paid  the  debt. 
The  law  allowed  him  three  dollars  per  month  until 
he  paid  the  debt,  but  the  master  could  charge  him 
for  everything  furnished,  so  it  was  no  trouble  to 
keep  him  in  debt.  That  law  has  since  been 
abolished. 

There  was  considerable  excitement  over  the  cap- 
ture of  a  herd  of  wild  horses.  They  was  secured 
in  a  corral  a  mile  or  so  from  Water's  house.  The 
train  rested  that  afternoon  so  we  men  went  down 
to  see  the  wild  horses.  There  were  one  horse  and 
seven  mares.  The  horse  had  been  in  captivity  three 
or  four  years  previously,  but  had  escaped  and  join- 
ed his  herd.  When  I  first  saw  him  he  was  tied  to 
a  post,  his  mane  touched  the  ground.  He  did  not 
seem  to  be  excited.  He  had  an  interesting  history. 
Waters  had  captnred  him  and  kept  him  for  two  or 
three  years  and  had  raised  a  number  of  fine  colts. 
He  got  away  and  joined  his  herd.  Many  efforts 
wrere  made  to  capture  him.  Mexicans  could  not 
lasso  him  because  he  was  too  fast.  Waters  offered 
a  reward  of  $500  for  his  capture.  Wild  horses  have 
certain  grazing  ground.  They  may  be  a  hundred 
miles  apart.  When  they  are  molested  at  one,  they 
flee  to  another.  Those  who  make  it  a  study  know 
the  routes  the  horses  take  in  going  from  one  pas- 
ture to  another.  One  day  the  men  fell  on  a  plan 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  49 

they  believed  would  be  successful.  They  engaged 
live  of  the  swiftest  race  horses  at  Santa  Fe.  They 
placed  the  horses  with  a  Mexican  rider  every  five 
miles  along  the  pass  with  a  lasso.  Each  Mexican 
was  to  run  the  horse  five  miles  and  then  the  next 
would  take  up  the  pursuit.  It  was  said  that  after 
the  fifth  Mexican  put  him  through  the  last  heat,  he 
was  getting  under  good  headway.  The  plan  em- 
ployed that  was  successful,  was  as  follows:  Their 
path  was  between  high  cliffs.  Posts  were  set  as 
for  a  stockade.  A  gate  was  left  open  and  a  man 
concealed  nearby  who  closed  the  gate  on  the  horses. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


AT  ALBUQUERQUE. 


THE  SUGAR  PASSES  INSPECTION — SPANISH  DANCES. 

Mexicans  are  a  peculiar  people.  They  are  hospit- 
able and  will  divide  anything  they  have  and  do  you 
any  favor,  and  at  the  same  time  they  will  steal 
from  you  anything  they  can  lay  their  hands  on.  I 
have  known  a  Mexican  to  follow  our  train  five  miles 
on  foot  to  sell  a  chicken  for  a  dime  or  two  or  three 
eggs  or  a  gallon  of  beans.  They  never  allow  any- 
thing to  go  to  waste.  If  one  of  their  cattle  die, 
they  eat  it.  Sometimes  oxen  would  die  where  we 
camped  and  in  the  course  of  few  hours  Mexicans 
would  pass  us  with  the  carcass  on  a  wagon  with 
great  clumsy  wheels  made  by  cutting  off  the  ends 
of  a  log.  They  never  greased  the  axles  and  one 
could  hear  them  squeak  long  before  they  overtook 
us.  Their  oxen  pull  by  the  horns.  A  straight 
pieces  of  wood  works  back  of  the  horns,  fastened 
by  a  rawhide  strap  around  the  horns.  This  con- 
stitutes the  yoke  and  seems  to  answer. 

One  day  we  passed  a  Mexican  ranch  and  our 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL,  51 

boys  stole  a  lot  of  beans.  We  had  gone  but  a 
short  distance  until  we  camped  and  the  boys  put 
the  beans  on  to  boil.  Pretty  soon  the  Mexican 
came  up  and  we  looked  for  trouble.  He  sat  around 
and  said  nothing.  When  the  beans  were  cooked, 
we  offered  him  a  dish  and  he  ate  heartily.  We 
were  much  delighted  to  see  how  he  relished  his 
beans. 

When  we  arrived  at  Albuquerque,  many  Mexicans 
gathered  around,  some  to  beg  and  some  to  sell 
fruit.  Albuquerque  was  headquarters  for  the 
army  and  there  were  many  soldiers.  They  were 
very  kind  and  could  not  do  too  much  for  us.  When 
a  train  was  expected,  they  would  arrange  to  have 
a  great  fandango  in  token  of  respect  to  Americans. 
The  three  days  we  remained,  it  so  happened  that  I 
had  no  guard  duty  and  so  looked  around  the  town. 
All  the  houses  were  of  sundried  brick.  The  roofs 
were  flat  and  covered  with  tile  or  thatched.  It 
would  seem  that  the  rains  would  wash  the  build- 
ings down,  they  seemed  quite  durable.  Peons 
working  on  the  houses  wore  nothing  but  breech 
clouts.  Fandangoes  seemed  to  be  free,  no  door 
fee.  Waltzes  seemed  to  be  the  popular  style  of 
dancing.  There  was  a  great  mixture  in  the  danc- 
ing— soldiers,  Mexicans  and  negroes.  The  negroes 
were  more  popular  with  the  Mexican  and  Spanish 
ladies  than  the  Mexicans.  Some  of  our  boys  took 
part,  but  it  was  a  little  tough  on  our  Missourians 
to  waltz  with  negroes,  but  they  had  to  comply  with 
the  custom  of  the  country.  The  musicians  were 
in  one  end  of  the  .building,  the  bar  in  the  other, 


52  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

and  after  the  dance,  each  man  would  treat  his 
partner  at  the  bar.  One  night  a  young  negro  was 
called  to  the  stand.  He  sang  "Jordan  is  a  hard 
road  to  travel. "  It  was  the  first  time  I  had  heard 
the  song.  It  was  late  when  the  fandango  was  over 
and  I  did  not  know  whether  I  could  find  the  way 
to  corral  and  two  soldiers  essorted  me  to  the 
wagons. 

When  we  unloaded  our  sugar,  my  load,  which  I 
upset  in  the  Wakarusha  river,  passed  Inpection. 
I  was  told  if  any  damage  was  assessed,  it  would  be 
taken  out  of  my  wages  and  I  was  dreading  inspec- 
tion. 

The  wagon-master  told  us  if  we  wanted  to  buy 
ponies  he  would  pay  for  them  and  deduct  the 
amount  from  our  wages.  We  found  ponies  high 
and  scarce  as  many  had  been  bought  up  by  other 
trainmen.  One  day  an  Indian  rode  up  and  offered 
his  pony  for  fifty  dollars  and  immediately  I  said  I 
would  buy  it.  The  transaction  made  some  of  the 
other  boys  mad  because  they  said  they  intend- 
ed to  buy  it.  I  told  them  I  had  as  good  a  right  to 
buy  as  they.  One  of  my  mess,  Vol  McMulligan, 
said  he  intended  to  give  me  a  good  threshing 
and  I  told  him  "All  right." 

One  of  the  most  novel  things  I  saw  at  Albuquer- 
que was  the  manner  of  marketing  wood.  It  is 
carried  on  the  backs  of  Jacks  which  are  very 
small.  Pack  saddles  With  frames  that  nearly  touch 
the  ground  on  each  side  are  used.  The  wood  is 
corded  length  wise  on  each  side  to  the  top  of  his 
back  and  then  corded  cross  wise  and  fastened  with 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  53 

straps.  All  that  can  be  seen  of  the  Jack  is  his 
head  and  ears  in  front  of  the  moving  wood  pile. 
Sometimes  the  poor  animal  would  get  tired  and 
lie  down  and  it  is  all  he  can  do  to  get  up  with  the 
assistance  of  two  Mexicans.  Of  course  the  wood 
is  seasoned  pine  or  other  light  wood  and  not  as 
heavy  as  it  looks.  Two  Mexicans  generally  have 
charge  of  five  or  six  Jacks.  The  wood  is  carried 
across  a  valley  from  the  mountains  some  distance 
off. 


CHAPTEK  X. 


HOMEWARD  BOUND. 


AN     AFFAIi:    OF    HONOR    SETTLED— CATTLE    LOvST. 

On  the  return,  we  had  a  drove  of  loose  cattle  to 
drive,  as  some  of  the  wagons  were  left  for  army  use. 
My  time  to  drive  the  cattle  came,  the  first  day  after 
starting.  My  horse  had  no  saddle,  but  I  folded 
my  blanket  and  made  a  good  substitute,  and  felt 
proud  of  my  improved  condition.  Next  day  it  was 
McMilligan's  time  to  drive  the  cattle.  He  wanted 
to  borrow  my  horse  and  I  refused.  I  tied  my 
horse  to  the  rear  wagon  and  dropped  back  a  little. 
He  and  two  others  overtook  me  and  McMulligan 
ordered  me  to  take  my  horse  from  the  wagon.  I 
refused  and  he  made  at  me.  I  thought  it  a  matter 
of  life  or  death.  I  did  not  have  a  friend  present,  so 
I  decided  to  give  him  the  best  I  had.  We  knocked 
for  a  time  and  he  was  getting  the  best  of  me.  I 
pulled  off  the  gloves  I  wore  and  made  for  him.  I 
noticed  his  wind  was  short  and  we  clinched  and 
fell,  he  on  top  with  his  head  toward  my  feet.  I 
reached  for  his  head  with  my  legs  and  pulled  his 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  5£ 

arm  up  and  got  his  thumb  in  my  teeth,  and  I  made 
the  bones  crack.  He  yelled  so  that  he  was  heard 
at  the  head  of  the  train,  some  distance  ahead.  The 
wagon  master  and  two  men  came  back  thinking  I 
was  yelling.  McMulligan  gave  me  his  word  that  if 
I  would  let  him  loose,  he  would  never  molest  me 
again.  The  wagon  master  told  me  I  had  punished 
him  enough.  I  let  loose  of  his  thumb  and  he  arose. 
As  I  got  up,  his  friend  cried:  "Go  for  him"  and  he 
made  another  charge.  I  got  a  finger  of  the  other 
hand  between  my  hands  and  that  limbered  him. 

Just  before  we  reached  a  camping  place,  the  wag- 
on master  told  me  he  had  heard  some  of  McMulli- 
gan's  mess  say  that  if  he  could  not  lick  me,  some  of 
them  could  and  he  told  me  that  when  the  train  was 
corralled  to  step  out  and  dare  McMulligan  or  any 
of  his  friends  to  come  on.  I  did  so  but  McMulligan 
sneaked  off  while  one  of  his  friends,  Dud  Kelley, 
came  at  me  with  a  lever  about  eight  feet  long.  He 
might  have  killed  me  but  the  boys  took  it  away  from 
him  and  he  shied  off.  I  flopped  my  wings  and 
crowed  like  a  Bantam.  The  next  morning  I  was 
lying  in  a  wagon  in  hearing  of  McMulligan's  mess. 
I  heard  one  of  the  boys  say:  "I  tell  you,  Hoosier  is 
getting  to  be  some.  We  did  not  know  he  was  such 
a  fighter  when  we  were  ordering  him  around." 

When  we  reached  Las  Vegas,  the  town  was  full 
of  Mexicans.  It  was  a  day  set  apart  for  gambling 
and  at  night  there  was  to  be  a  fandango.  The 
boys  proposed  to  give  me  five  dollars  if  I  would 
guard  the  cattle  that  night  and  allow  them  to  attend 
the  fandango.  I  agreed  and  hired  two  Mexican 


56  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

,boys  to  help  me  guard  them.  After  the  cattle  had 
filled  themselves  and  lay  down,  we  got  together  and 
the  boys  made  cigarettes  and  lighted  them  by  strik- 
ing their  flints  and  lighting  punk.  I  told  the  boys 
to  watch  the  cattle  while  I  slept  and  to  awaken  me 
at  a  certain  time  and  I  would  watch  and  allow  them 
to  sleep.  I  charged  them  not  to  go  to  sleep  and  they 
promised  they  would  keep  a  sharp  look  out.  I 
awoke  some  time  in  the  later  part  of  the  night. 
The  boys  were  both  asleep.  I  awoke  them  and  we 
started  to  find  the  cattle.  Some  were  in  a  ravine 
feeding.  I  was  afraid  we  would  not  find  the  others. 
The  boys  came  back  from  the  fandango  in  the 
morning  and  the  wagon  master  said  we  would  find 
the  cattle  on  the  road.  So  we  hitched  up  and  soon 
overtook  them. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


THE  BUFFALO  COUNTRY. 


FRESH  WATER  DISCOVERED — SPORT  WITH  THE    BUF- 
FALO RENEWED. 

When  we  reached  Waters'  ranch,  we  learned  that 
^the  stallion  that  had  been  recaptured  was  sent  by  a 
train  that  had  passed  us,  to  Lexington,  Mo.  They 
thought  it  safer  to  send  it  to  the  States  for  fear  he 
might  :get  away  again.  The  last  I  heard  of  the 
stglUcm  was  that  they  were  offering  to  bet  $1,000 
that  he  could  out-run  any  horse  in  the  United  States 
in  twenty  miles. 

There  was  a  long  stretch  on  our  route  that  we 
were  dreading  because  of  the  scarcity  of  water  but 
it  so  happened  that  at  a  midway  point,  we  met  a 
Mexican  train  and  the  men  told  us  of  water  that  our 
boys  knew  nothing  of.  A  Mexican  offered  to  take 
us  to  it.  So  three  or  four  of  us  took  our  canteens 
and  strapped  our  water  kegs  on  our  backs  and  fol- 
lowed him  quite  a  distance  up  a  canyon  to  the  base 
of  a  large  hill  where  we  found  the  finest  cistern  of 
water  I  ever  saw.  It  looked  as  if  there  had  been  a 
sand-slide  from  the  hill  which  was  afterwards 


58  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

formed  into  sand  rock.  There  was  a  well-formed 
cistern  ten  or  twelve  feet  in  diameter  and  perhaps 
fifteen  feet,  filled  with  cold,  clear  cistern  water. 
The  cistern  was  in  the  center  of  a  table-rock  that 
had  a  gradual  slope  to  the  center  with  little  gut- 
ters to  conduct  the  rain  to  the  mouth  of  the 
cistern  which  was  not  over  five  feet  in  diam- 
eter. On  the  south  side  there  was  a  channel 
which  conducted  the  water  away  when  there  was 
a  surplus.  In  the  solid  rock  there  were  mule  tracks 
as  plain  as  if  just  made  in  the  mud.  The  mules 
were  shod.  We  returned  to  camp  with  our  vessels 
well  filled. 

Again  we  reached  the  Cimaron  river.  It  is  a 
strange  stream.  In  places  the  water  runs  on  the 
surface  and  again  it  sinks  in  the  sand  only  to  rise 
again.  Occasionally  a  large  pool  of  clear  water  is 
seen.  The  pool  is  lower  than  the  water  which  cir- 
culates through  the  sand.  We  camped  at  one  of 
these  pools  one  noon  and  just  as  the  train  was 
starting  one  of  the  boys  and  myself  discovered 
that  there  were  lots  of  fine  cat-fish  in  the  pool. 
We  waded  after  them  as  the  water  was  only  two  or 
three  feet  deep.  We  discovered  when  the  sediment 
was  stirred  up,  the  fish  would  come  the  surface  to 
breathe.  By  placing  our  hands  under  them,  we 
could  throw  them  out  on  the  bank.  Becoming 
greatly  interested  in  the  sport,  we  concluded  to  re- 
main a  while  and  catch  all  we  could.  The  under- 
stading  wras  we  would  camp  at  Willow  Bar  about 
ten  miles  away.  After  catching  all  the  fish  we  could 
carry,  we  started  for  the  train.  The  road  was  sandy 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  59 

and  walking  was  very  slavish.  We  wrere  much  fa- 
fatigued  but  clung  to  the  fish.  We  were  greatly 
disappointed  at  Willow  Bar  to  find  no  \vagons  and 
night  coming  on.  We  knew  the  next  camping  place 
was  twelve  or  fifteen  miles  farther  on  and  it  would 
be  a  great  undertaking  to  walk  that  distance.  So 
we  threw  away  our  fish  and  started  with  sad  hearts 
and  tired  limbs.  Another  discouraging  feature 
was  that  we  were  in  a  country  of  hostile  Indians 
and  liable  to  be  taken  in  at  any  time.  I  will  not 
attempt  to  describe  how  tired  and  disheartened  we 
were,  trudging  through  the  dry  fine  sand  that  gave 
away  at  every  step,  our  feet  burying  shoe  top  deep. 
My  partner  said  he  was  so  tired  he  would  have  to 
give  up.  I  told  him  if  he  did,  the  big  grey  wolves 
would  eat  him  and  if  they  did  not,  I  would.  So  he 
took  new  courage.  But  we  finally  reached  the 
train  about  midnight.  I  suppose  there  were  never 
twTo  happier,  fellows  and  I  know  there  were  never 
any  more  tired  or  hungry.  The  boys  were  about 
as  glad  to  see  us  as  we  were  to  see  them.  They 
had  made  up  their  minds  that  the  Indians  had 
taken  us  as  they  had  seen  a  gang  at  a  distance  about 
sundown. 

We  were  expecting  soon  to  reach  the  buffaloes  as 
we  had  been  informed  they  were  feeding  farther 
south  than  we  left  them  in  the  spring. 

One  day  our  wragon  master,  who  was  riding  in 
front  of  the  train,  fell  back  and  told  us  we  were  in 
sight  of  buffalo.  He  pointed  to  three  old  bulls 
lying  a  little  distance  ahead.  The  boys  drove  the 
loose  cattle  ahead  of  our  wagon  and  hid  behind 


60  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

them  until  the  cattle  were  close  to  them. 
The  boys  designated  one  that  we  would  all  fire  at 
as  they  wanted  to  make  sure  of  one,  as  we  were 
wanting  fresh  meat.  The  great  brutes  rose  to  their 
feet  but  did  not  seem  to  scare  when  the  boys  fired 
at  the  one  selected.  The  other  two  started  with  a 
rolling  jump.  I  was  on  my  horse  and  pursued 
them  with  a  pair  of  holsters  that  belonged  to  our 
wagon  master.  My  horse  ran  at  the  side  of  the 
buffaloes,  they  keeping  abreast.  It  is  not  every 
horse  that  can  run  on  to  a  buffalo.  A  horse  that 
keeps  up  with  a  buffalo  is  getting  over  the  ground. 
I  fired  at  close  range  but  do  not  know  that  I  hit 
them,  perhaps  not.  The  buffalo  which  the  boys  shot 
soon  got  sick.  He  would  paw  the  ground,  grunt 
and  lie  down.  Mr.  Percel,  a  passenger  on  the  train, 
was  a  venturesome  man.  He  carried  a  butcher 
knife  in  a  scabbard  in  his  boot  leg.  He  would  take 
his  knife  in  hand  when  a  buffalo  was  wounded,  ad- 
vance on  him  from  behind  and  cut  his  hamstrings 
and  let  him  down.  It  looked  dangerous,  but  he 
claimed  by  getting  close  to  them,  he  could  turn 
around  as  fast  as  the  buffalo.  When  an  animal  was 
cut  down,  he  was  at  our  mercy.  A  buffalo  is  very 
tenacious  of  life.  Unless  hit  in  a  vital  spot,  one 
would  not  know  the  animal  was  hurt.  Our  army 
guns  would  send  a  ball  through  them.  To  kill  a 
buffalo,  we  shot  it  back  of  the  fore  leg  and  pretty 
low  down.  After  one  has  been  shot  through  the 
heart,  I  have  seen  him  run  a  little  ways. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


HUNTING  BUFFALOES. 


THE  GREAT  SPORT  OP  OUR  WESTERN  COUNTRY. 

We  did  not  travel  far  until  we  were  in  the  midst 
of  buffaloes.  The  whole  surface  of  the  plains 
seemed  to  be  a  great  mass  of  buffaloes.  At  times 
they  did  not  try  to  get  out  of  our  way  and  at  other 
times  they  would  run  when  we  were  miles  away. 
Buffaloes  are  governed  more  by  scent  than  by  sight 
and  old  hunters  took  advantage  of  that  fact.  We 
all  observed  that  when  they  would  run,  the  wind 
was  blowing  from  us  to  them.  All  who  remember 
having  seen  buffalo  meat  on  the  market  remember 
it  is  dark  and  coarse.  Hence  there  was  the  im- 
pression that  all  buffalo  meat  was  dark,  but  it  was 
a  mistake  for  there  was  no  more  delicious  meat 
than  young  buffalo  meat. 

One  day  I  took  my  gun  and  strolled  to  the  sum- 
mit of  a  ridge  to  see  the  cows  and  calves  that  the 
boys  told  about.  It  was  a  sight  to  see  thousands 
of  the  little  black  fellows.  They  fairly  swarmed. 
I  could  not  get  as  near  as  I  wanted  on  account  of  a 


62  WHAT  I  SAAV  ON  THE 

gang  of  gray  wolves,  some  of  which  looked  as  big 
as  St.  Bernard  dogs.  Usually  wolves  show  cow- 
ardice but  these  seemed  to  have  no  fear.  There 
was  one  monstrous  buffalo  bull  that  stood  his 
ground.  He  kept  pawing  and  grunting  and  rais- 
ing a  cloud  of  dust  I  did  not  like  his  appearance. 
I  thought  before  returning  I  would  see  if  I  could 
raise  any  dust  from  him.  So  I  let  him  have  it.  We 
could  always  tell  where  we  hit  an  old  bull  for  the 
dust  would  fly  from  his  great  coat  of  fur  which  is 
full  of  dust  for  they  are  always  rolling  in  the  dust. 
There  are  great  holes  called  buffalo  wallows.  The 
old  fellow  started  toward  me.  I  ran  for  the  wag- 
ons quite  a  distance  off.  I  looked  back  and  could 
see  his  great  shaggy  mane  flopping.  He  was  gain- 
ing on  me.  A  number  of  the  boys  saw  him  coming 
so  they  came  out  to  meet  him.  They  attracted  his 
attention  and  I  got  out  of  the  way.  The  boys  di- 
vided and  shot  at  him  from  both  sides.  The  wag- 
ons had  corralled  for  the  night  and  he  went  within 
twenty  or  thirty  rods  of  the  camp.  He  soon  got  sick 
and  would  lie  down  and  get  up  repeatedly  which 
was  a  sure  sign  that  he  was  mortally  wounded.  Mr. 
Percel  got  his  great  butcher  knife  out  and  started 
for  him.  The  bull  chased  him  but  Percel  kept  too 
close  at  his  heels,  striking  all  the  time  at  his  ham- 
strings and  finally  succeeded  in  cutting  him  down. 
He  thus  lost  his  power  of  locomotion  and  the  boys 
would  jump  on  his  back  just  to  hear  him  snort. 
When  he  was  dead,  we  took  enough  of  his  meat  for 
supper.  We  never  took  anything  but  tenderloins  of 
old  bulls.  They  were  very  good  even  from  old  bulls. 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL,  63 

We  had  some  exciting  experiences  killing  buf- 
faloes. One  day  after  we  got  to  where  they  were 
not  so  numerous,  there  being  small  herds  of 
a  thousand  or  so  isolated  from  the  main  herd,  we 
found  them  on  the  alert  and  it  was  a  little  hard  to 
get  between  them  and  the  main  herd.  There  was 
a  small  herd  a  mile  or  so  to  the  southeast  of  us. 
The  main  body  was  north  and  a  little  to  the  west  of 
us.  As  I  stated  it  was  hard  to  get  between  those 
small  herds  and  the  main  herd.  If  they  saw  we 
were  about  to  cut  them  off,  they  would  try  to  pass 
as  far  as  possible  from  us.  After  the  leaders  had 
passed,  the  others  would  follow  in  the  same  line 
and  the  hunter  had  better  stand  aside.  A  stream 
in  this  prairie  country  can  not  be  seen  until  one 
gets  right  to  it.  There  was  a  dry,  deep  channel 
and  we  took  advantage  of  the  buffaloes  and  kept 
down  the  bed  out  of  sight  until  we  were  directly 
between  them  and  the  main  herd.  As  soon  as  we 
made  our  appearance  they  started  to  pass  us  so 
that  by  the  time  they  were  past  us,  we  were  up  to 
their  line  of  crossing  the  dry  bed.  There  was 
a  perpendicular  bank  on  the  south  side  but  that  did 
not  stop  them.  They  jumped  off  turning  somer- 
saults upon  the  soft  sand  on  the  other  side.  The 
herd  was  feeding  and  all  did  not  see  us  at  first  but 
as  fast  as  they  did  see  us,  they  would  start  to  the 
line  of  those  in  front.  So  they  were  strung  out  a 
mile  or  so.  We  stood  on  the  bank  as  near  as  we 
dared,  shooting  and  loading.  But  we  killed  only 
one  and  it  ran  some  forty  rods  and  when  it  fell,  it 
turned  its  feet  up  and  was  dead.  We  went  to  it  and 


C4  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

it  was  shot  through  the  heart.  We  cut  out  its 
tongue  and  'started  for  the  wagons  which  were  a 
long  ways  off.  We  did  not  catch  them  until  they 
had  camped  for  the  night.  To  say  that  ,'we  were 
hungry  and  tired  would  express  it  but  feebly. 

After  we  had  got  away  from  the  buffalos  we  could 
occasionally  see  an  old  straggler  all  alone. 
The  last  one  we  saw  was  feeding  to  the  north  of  the 
road.  I  was  riding  my  horse  and  a  fellow  named 
Ferry  Matthews  asked  me  to  ride  around  to  the 
other  side  of  the  buffalo  and  scare  him  over  where 
he  would  conceal  himself  behind  a  high  bank  or  ra- 
vine. I  did  so.  Perry  was  expecting  the  buffalo 
to  cross  below  him  a  little  ways  but  he  went  down 
the  bank  where  Perry  was  in  hiding.  You  should 
have  seen  him  come  boiling  out.  He  was  badly 
scared  when  he  saw  the  old  bull  with  his  great 
shaggy  hair  coming  in  a  rolling  jump. 

I  suppose  it  would  be  interesting  to  most  people 
to  know  what  kind  of  fuel  we  used  while  crossing 
the  plains  where  there  is  such  an  expanse  of  coun- 
try without  a  tree  of  any  kind.  I  will  say  that  we 
had  an  abundance  of  the  best  fuel,  commonly 
known  as  "buffalo  chips."  The  chips  had  been  ex- 
posed to  the  rains  and  heat  of  the  sun  so  long  that 
they  were  entirely  odorless  and  almost  as  hard  as 
pine  knots.  No  doubt  some  were  eight  or  ten  years 
old.  They  made  a  better  tire  than  wood  even  if  wood 
had  been  available,  from  the  fact  that  as  soon  as  the 
fire  started,  a  coal  was  formed  ready  for  use  where- 
as we  would  have  had  to  wait  on  wood  to  burn  to 
a  coal.  The  most  fastidious  ladies  crossing  the 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  65 

plains  thought  no  more  of  gathering  buffalo  chips 
than  our  ladies  would  think  of  gathering  chips 
at  the  wood  pile.  My  part  of  camp  duty  was  to 
gather  chips.  I  suppose  I  have  gathered  enough 
to  fill  a  small  barn. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


SMALLPOX  BREAKS  OUT. 


DESERTS  THE  TRAIN  AND  STARTS  ALONE. 

The  reader  will  remember,  the  fandango  in  Los 
Vegas  the  night  I  herded  the  cattle.  Well,  I  never 
got  a  cent  for  herding  the  cattle  but  the  boys  got 
the  smallpox.  Two  or  three  of  them  caught  the 
smallpox  at  the  fandango  and  about  half  the  boys 
in  the  train  had  it  afterwards.  In  fact,  every  man 
that  had  not  been  vaccinated  took  it  except  myself. 
We  had  a  hospital  wagon  where  the  patients  rode. 
We  were  entirely  unprepared  to  treat  them.  There, 
was  no  medicine  and  no  diet  except  train  fare, 
which  consisted  of  bacon,  sugar  and  rice.  The 
hospital  wagon  was  open  except  the  cover.  It  was 
very  unpleasant  to  be  associated  with  the  sick. 
They  spent  most  of  their  time  quarreling.  They 
would  stick  their  scabby  faces  outof  the  wagon  and 
such  cursing!  Notwithstanding  their  unfavorable 
surroundings,  all  recovered  except  the  man  first 
taken  who  arose  one  night  to  get  a  drink  and  took 
cold.  The  mail  coach  conveyed  the  information  to 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  67 

Missouri  that  our  train  had  smallpox  and  later  we 
learned  from  the  outgoing  mail  that  we  would  be 
quarantined  out  on  the  road  and  held  until  we  were 
all  well.  That  did  not  strike  me  favorably.  I  had 
had  enough.  I  wanted  to  get  back  to  civilization 
and  be  vaccinated.  So  I  got  the  wagon  master  to 
figure  up  how  many  guards  I  would  have  to  stand 
and  how  many  drives  I  would  have.  I  got  him  to 
agree  to  let  me  do  duty  by  standing  guard  every 
night  in  succession  and  driving  every  day  until  I 
served  my  time.  The  cattle  were  so  well  broken 
that  they  were  little  to  herd.  I  could  nap  a  little 
while  they  were  lying  down.  I  got  along  all  right 
and  served  out  my  time.  I  was  to  have  my  free- 
dom as  soon  as  we  crossed  the  Arkansas  river. 

We  crossed  the  river  and  camped,  but  in  the 
morning  the  wagon  master  objected  to  me  leaving 
the  train.  He  made  several  excuses,  said  I  would 
never  get  through,  that  the  Indians  would  kill  me. 
I  saw  they  were  determined  not  to  let  me  go.  So 
I  pretended  I  had  given  the  matter  up  but  I  was 
fully  determined  to  go.  I  had  my  horse  and  bridle 
but  no  saddle.  I  folded  my  blanket  and  made  a 
fairly  good  saddle,  I  slipped  around  the  camp  and 
got  a  sack  of  ground  coffee,  a  tin  cup  a  lot  of 
matches.  That  was  my  entire  outfit. 

When  the  train  started,  I  rode  ahead  as  I  often 
did.  After  I  passed  over  a  ridge  out  of  sight  of  the 
train,  I  struck  a  much  faster  gait  and  that  was  the 
last  I  saw  of  the  train  or  they  saw  of  me.  Water 
was  not  scarce  and  I  thought  I  could  make  it  all 
right.  At  noon,  I  made  some  strong  coffee  and  felt 


68  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

as  if  I  had  had  a  first  class  dinner.  I  got  my  sup- 
per in  the  same  manner.  I  was  afraid  the  Indians 
would  get  my  horse,  so  I  picketed  him  out  near 
the  road  and  took  my  blanket  and  slept  near  the 
horse  in  a  hollow.  I  thought  if  the  Indians  found 
my  horse  I  would  lie  in  concealment  until  the  train 
came  up.  I  was  tired  and  slept  soundly  and  when 
I  awoke  my  horse  was  all  right.  My  breakfast  was 
the  same  as  dinner  and  supper.  The  second  day 
was  a  long  and  lonesome  one.  I  did  not  see  a  sin- 
gle thing  except  one  Indian.  He  saw  me  a  long 
ways  off  and  sat  on  his  pony  until  I  came  up.  He 
had  a  deer  in  front  of  his  saddle  and  I  was  really 
glad  to  see  him  and  he  seemed  glad  to  see  me.  I 
stopped  and  we  looked  at  each  other.  He  crossed 
my  road  and  went  east.  I  continued  on  the  Santa 
Fe  trail.  I  nooned  where  a  Mexican  train  had 
campfed.  I  found  the  tree  of  an  old  saddle  and 
some  whang.  So  I  constructed  a  saddle  by  mak- 
ing a  girt  and  stirrups  of  whang.  I  folded  my 
blanket  and  got  on  my  horse  and  I  am  sure  no 
young  man  ever  felt  prouder  when  he  was  on  his 
way  to  see  his  best  girl  than  I  felt  riding  my  new 
saddle.  The  third  day  I  did  not  see  a  person  all 
day.  A  little  before  night  I  saw  a  very  dark  cloud 
rising  in  the  west.  I  thought  there  was  a  great 
storm  approaching.  It  came  nearer  and  nearer 
and  I  thought  it  strange  there  was  no  thunder  or 
lightning.  All  at  once,  I  was  in  a  mass  of  black 
smoke.  For  a  few  minutes  my  horse  and  I  almost 
suffocated  but  it  rolled  away  and  went  east  out  of 
sight.  Talk  to  me  about  fresh  air  treatment.  I 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  69 

am  a  firm  believer  in  it.  At  night,  I  lay  clown  to 
rest  and  a  cold  drizzly  rain  began.  I  was  soon  wet 
and  chilled  and  I  could  not  sleep  until  about  mid- 
night when  I  fell  into  a  doze.  Suddenly  my  horse 
gave  a  snort  and  came  close  to  me  and  by  putting 
my  face  close  to  the  ground  I  could  see  an  object. 
I  will  here  say  that  no  matter  how  dark  it  is  if  you 
put  your  head  close  to  the  ground,  you  can  see 
much  better.  An  Indian  came  up  and  exclaimed: 
"How?  See  Indians?"  I  said:  "No.  Heap  wagons 
come."  I  did  not  understand  what  he  was  after. 
I  thought  I  would  make  him  think  there  were  more 
of  us. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


A  DASH  FROM  INDIANS. 


THEN  A  LONE  TRADER  IS  FOUND  AND  FOOD  SE- 
CURED. 

The  Indian  shook  iny  hand  and  started  in  a  west- 
ern direction.  After  he  had  gone  a  little  ways,  he 
commenced  to  yell:  "Who-e-e,  who-e-e."  He  made 
the  plains  ring.  I  thought  he  might  be  calling  up 
other  Indians  and  as  I  was  cold  and  wet,  I  conclud- 
ed to  saddle  up  and  move  on.  It  was  so  dark  that 
I  could  not  see  the  road  and  the  only  way  I  could 
tell  I  was  in  the  road  was  by  my  horse  slipping. 
His  hoofs  were  fiat  and  enough  rain  had  fallen  to 
make  the  road  slippery.  I  knew  it  was  not  far  to 
a  creek  called  142  or  110, 1  do  not  remember  which. 
But  I  knew  it  was  a  great  camping  place  for  trains 
and  I  was  in  hopes  that  I  would  find  a  train  there. 
Then  I  thought  I  heard  some  one  yell.  That  gave  me 
encouragement  to  press  on.  After  a  time,  I  heard 
voices,  and  I  decided  that  a  train  was  near  and  the 
voices  I  heard  were  those  of  men  on  guard.  If  I 
found  a  train  in  camp  I  could  get  som thing  to  eat, 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  71 

of  which  I  was  in  great  need,  as  I  had  subsisted  on 
coffee  more  than  two  days.  When  I  got  near  the 
creek,  there  were  high  weeds  on  both  sides  of  the 
road  with  just  enough  room  for  a  wagon.  I  was 
expecting  to  find  the  camp  on  the  other  side  of  the 
creek  but  I  was  much  disappointed. 

All  at  once  I  met  a  lot  of  Indians  walking.  They 
were  scattered  from  one  side  of  the  road  to  the 
other.  They  took  my  horse  by  the  bridle.  Some 
held  me  by  the  legs.  Others  pulled  my  horse's 
tail.  They  kept  up  a  continual  jabber.  I  did  not 
attempt  to  reply  to  them.  Of  one  thing  I  was  sure 
and  that  was  I  was  at  their  mercy.  But  still  I  was 
not  frightened  for  I  had  the  consolation  that  Indians 
never  kill  a  lone  traveler.  I  have  no  doubt  I  was 
safer  alone  than  if  with  two  or  three  others.  They  fi- 
nally released  my  bridle  and  my  legs  and  congre- 
gated behind  my  horse.  I  gave  my  horse  a  sudden 
kick  and  he  sprang  away  in  a  lope  which  he  kept  up 
until  I  felt  safe.  Soon  I  heard  a  horse  coming  to- 
wards me.  I  dismounted  and  led  my  horse  to  one 
side  until  they  had  passed.  When  daylight  came, 
I  found  my  saddle  had  injured  my  horse's  back.  I 
had  not  taken  pains  to  put  it  on  right  and  my 
horse's  back  swelled  on  each  side  in  great  lumps  as 
big  as  my  head.  So  I  had  to  throw  -my  saddle 
away  and  drive  my  horse  in  front  of  me.  He  be- 
came stiff  and  I  had  to  lash  him  to  make  him  go. 

About  the  middle  of  the  day,  I  saw  an  American 
flag  some  distance  ahead  on  a  pole.  Soon  I  saw  a 
tent  and  when  I  reached  it  a  white  man  came  out 
to  greet  me.  How  glad  I  was  and  he  appeared  to 


72  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

be  as  glad  as  I.  He  was  one  of  the  MeGee  broth- 
ers from  Kansas  City,  Mo.  They  were  great  Indian 
traders.  He  brought  whiskey  and  a  few  other 
articles  to  sell  to  the  Indians.  Mr.  McGee  offered 
me  a  dram  and  at  first  I  refused.  He  said  it  would 
be  the  best  thing  for  me.  So  I  took  it.  He  then 
gave  me  food  which  I  needed.  I  wondered  why  he 
had  an  American  flag  over  his  place  and  I  have  de- 
cided that  he  did  it  to  protect  himself  from  the  In- 
dians. They  could  have  wiped  him  out  any  time 
but  they  had  great  respect  for  the  power  repre- 
sented by  the  flag.  So  McGee  used  it  to  impress 
the  Indians  that  he  must  be  left  alone. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


TO  CIVILIZATION. 


THE    KAW    AGENCY    AND      THB     QUAKER     MISSION 
REACHED. 

I  reached  Council  Grove  that  evening.  As  I  ap- 
reached  the  Agency,  I  heard  a  pitiful  wail  from  the 
Indians.  An  old  Indian  came  out  to  meet  me  and 
he  explained  their  trouble.  He  said:  "Comanche 
kill  um  Kaw."  The  Kaw  Indians  had  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  cowardly.  On  that  account  they  were 
despised  by  the  other  tribes.  Indians  had  their 
hunting  grounds  divided  as  we  do  our  states.  Some- 
times their  boundry  lines  were  in  dispute.  Then 
they  had  a  kind  of  an  Indian  Monroe  doctrine  to 
enforce.  Whenever  a  Kaws  trespassed  on  other 
tribes,  he  was  sent  to  the  happy  hunting  ground. 
Whenever  the  Kaws  were  scared  they  would  flock 
from  all  over  their  reservation  to  Council  Grove, 
the  Kaw  agency.  Their  tents  were  in  groups 
around  the  village.  They  would  kneel  down  and  set 
up  the  most  pitiful  wail  I  ever  heard.  It  was  their 
manner  of  mourning.  They  kept  it  up  until 


74  \VHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

nearly  morning  I  noticed  then  that  each  had 
a  streak  of  white  clay  across  the  top  of  his 
head.  The  old  chief  and  about  a  dozen  other  bucks 
formed  a  circle  on  Hay's  porch.  The  chief  was  the 
center.  He  would  rap  on  the  floor  to  keep  time  and 
they  sang  a  good  many  Indian  melodies.  I  fared 
well  at  the  Agency.  Mr.  Hays  and  his  kind  wife 
did  all  in  their  power  to  make  it  pleasant.  They 
had  a  colored  woman  for  a  servant.  I  felt  very 
awkward  when  I  went  to  the  table.  I  did  not  know 
how  to  use  my  knife  and  fork.  I  had  forgotten  on 
which  side  of  my  plate  to  set  my  cup.  I  got  a  good 
rest  and  was  in  no  great  hurry  to  leave  for  my 
horse  did  not  improve.  Before  I  left  a  Mexican 
train  came  up  bound  for  Kansas  City.  It  belonged 
to  Armeho,  a  very  noted  Mexican  freighter.  With 
the  train  were  four  passengers,  a  single  white  lady, 
two  young  white  men  and  a  negro  and  to  my  sur- 
prise the  negro  was  Jordan  who  had  sung  at  the 
fandango  at  Port  Albuquerque.  I  made  arrange- 
ments with  Arrneho  to  go  through  in  his  train. 
There  was  a  large  three-seated  carriage  in  which 
we  all  rode.  I  turned  my  horse  loose  with  the 
extra  mules  and  ponies  which  were  driven  in  front 
of  the  train..  The  two  young  men  were  rivals  for 
the  favors  of  the  young  lady  and  could  not  help 
showing  their  jealousy.  Jordan  and  I  enjoyed  watch- 
ing them.  She  seemed  to  show  no  partiality  and 
both  were  wrought  to  a  red  heat.  Afterward  she 
married  one  at  Kansas  City. 

The  Santa  Fe  trail  passed  the  Quaker  mission 
farm  on  the  east.     I  decided  to  leave  the  train  and 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  75 

take  a  near  cut  across  the  farm.  I  offered  to  pay 
Armeho  for  traveling  with  him  but  he  would  take 
nothing.  When  I  took  my  poor  horse  out  of  the 
herd,  he  was  a  sight.  The  Mexicans  had  split  his 
hide  to  whang  strings.  He  was  stiffened  up  and 
could  not  get  out  of  their  way.  They  used  large 
blacksnake  whips  with  both  hands  and  when  they 
struck  an  animal,  they  would  lay  the  hide  open. 

I  passed  diagonally  through  the  farm  and  as  I 
was  passing  the  corn  crib,  I  heard  Richard  Men- 
denhall  laughing.  He  was  in  the  crib  and  saw  me. 
He  exclaimed:  "Thee  looks  like  thee  had  not  wash- 
ed thy  face,  combed  thy  hair  or  washed  thy  shirt 
since  thee  left  here  last  spring."  I  at  once  began 
to  realize  that  I  had  reached  civilization. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


TROUBLED  KANSAS. 


THE      FIRST     ASSAULT      EVER    MADE      BY      BORDER 
RUFFIANS. 

I  had  been  over  five  months  among  Indians,  Mex- 
icans and  trainmen  who  never  take  any  special 
pains  with  their  toilet.  I  saw  the  rebel  prisoners 
march  into  Camp  Morton  and  they  were  a  dirty  and 
ragged  set,  but  in  comparison  with  the  men  who 
have  bull-whacked  across  the  plains  and  back,  one 
might  have  thought  the  rebels  were  going  to  church 
instead  of  to  prison.  On  the  plains  we  did  our  own 
mending.  We  patched  our  clothes  with  flour 
sacks.  The  suit  we  started  with  is  worn  all  week. 
There  are  no  laundries  on  the  plains.  No  barber 
shops.  No  bath  houses.  So  I  was  not  surprised 
at  Friend  MendenhalTs  personal  remark.  When 
he  came  out  of  the  crib  he  gave  me  a  shaking  up. 
He  made  sport  of  my  horse  and  asked  what  kind  of 
animal  it  was.  But  he  escorted  me  to  the  house 
and  neither  Mrs.  Mendenhall  nor  Mrs.  Thayer, 
wife  of  the  superintendent,  knew  me.  They  said: 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  77 

"Is  it  possible  that  this  is  James  Little  who  left 
here  last  spring? "  Even  the  Indian  children  were 
shy  of  me. 

The  dining  room  was  in  the  basement,  Indians 
and  whites  eating  at  the  same  table  which  reached 
almost  the  length  of  a  long  room.  I  had  forgotten 
that  the  Friends  sit  a  little  while  before  commenc- 
ing to  eat.  Without  thinking,  I  turned  my  plate 
over  and  was  ready  to  proceed.  Then  I  saw  my 
error.  I  was  governed  more  by  a  habit  formed  on 
the  plains.  There,  if  one  felt  thankful  for  blessings 
it  was  not  the  custom  to  make  a  statement  either 
vocally  or  silently.  The  intent  of  the  heart  was 
what  counted  there.  I  saw  that  all  at  the  table  no- 
ticed my  blunder.  Even  the  Indians,  whom  they 
were  trying  to  civilize,  noticed  it.  But  I  set  myself 
right  by  waiting  until  all  were  ready  and  when  the 
bell  tapped,  we  all  took  an  even  start. 

I  was  at  a  loss  to  know  how  to  handle  my  cup 
and  knife  and  fork,  but  by  watching  the  others  I 
managed  to  get  along. 

I  also  found  that  it  bothered  me  to  get  accustom- 
ed to  sleeping  in  the  house.  The  air  seemed  op- 
pressive. A  man  will  form  habits  in  camp  life  that 
are  hard  to  break.  I  have  often  heard  our  boys 
say  that  six  months  traveling  on  the  plains  seemed 
more  than  six  years  at  home. 

The  next  day  I  went  to  Westport  to  a  barber  shop. 
I  also  bought  a  suit  of  clothes.  I  felt  so  different 
that  I  hardly  realized  that  I  was  the  same  fellow. 
They  did  not  recognize  me  at  the  Mission  and  Mrs. 
Thayer  said:  "Is  it  possible  that  this  is  the 


78  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

same  James  Little  that  left  here  this  morning?" 
Kansas  was  now  open  for  settlers  and  the  early 
settlers  were  arriving  from  the  east.  There  was  a 
warm  feeling  growing  between  the  free  state  peo- 
ple and  the  pro-slavery  people.  The  question  was 
whether  Kansas  should  be  a  slave  state  or  a  free 
state.  One  day  a  young  Southerner  got  up  on  a 
box  in  the  street  in  Westport  and  made  a  speech  to 
fire  up  the  pro-slavery  people.  There  were  wagons 
psssing  along  the  street  loaded  with  goods,  with 
women  and  children  on  top  of  the  load.  They  were 
the  first  arrivals  of  the  Massachusetts  Emigrant 
Aid  society.  In  his  remarks  the  southerner  turn- 
ed, and  pointing  to  the  wagons,  said:  "Why  do  you 

allow  these   d d    Abolitionists  to  come  here? 

The  next  thing  you  know  they  will  steal  your  nig- 
gers." The  better  class  of  citizens  did  not  approve 
of  such  remarks,  but  the  speaker  was  surrounded 
by  a  set  of  ruffians  who  cheered  him.  After  he  had 
finished  speaking,  a  crowd  assembled  on  a  corner. 
I  was  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street.  A  man 
came  walking  briskly  down  the  street  where  the 
crowd  had  assembled.  One  of  the  gang  stepped 
out  and  said  to  the  man:  "Do  you  belong  to  the 
Massachusetts  Emigrant  Aid  Society?"  I  did-  not 
hear  the  answer  but  I  think  he  said  he  did.  The 
ruffian  said:  "Then  you  are  an  Abolitionist,"  and 
sprang  at  him  and  gave  him  a  terrible  choking. 
This  was  the  first  man  that  was  ever  molested  by 
the  Border  Ruffians.  The  affair  created  much  ex- 
citement. It  was  the  commencement  of  the  civil 
war. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


GETS  HI  3  MONEY. 


TEN      DOLLARS      BONUS      FOR      E  RIVING      WITHOUT 
SWEARING. 

I  did  not  hear  from  our  train  for  two  or  three 
weeks  as  it  was  quarantined  before  it  got  in. 
Their  camp  was  not  far  from  where  Olathe  now  is. 
I  did  not  take  much  interest  in  the  train  as  I  did 
not  expect  to  get  anything  more  for  my  services  on 
account  of  deserting.  I  felt  that  I  had  done  noth- 
ing dishonorable  for  I  had  fulfilled  my  part  of  the 
contract.  But  I  did  not  know  how  Majors  would  view 
the  matter.  One  of  the  men  from  the  Mission  met 
Majors  at  Westport  who  told  him  he  was  going  to 
pay  off  at  his  house  the  next  day  and  Majors  said 
for  me  to  come  down*  His  farm  was  about  four 
miles  off  on  the  Missouri  and  Kansas  line.  So  I 
footed  it  down  there  next  day  and  when  I  was  in 
sight  of  the  place  I  saw  the  boys  standing  in 
a  group.  As  soon  as  I  was  in  hearing  distance, 
they  began  to  cheer  and  cry:  "Come,  Hoos- 
ier,  and  get  your  ten  doollars."  I  did  not  un- 
derstand what  it  meant,  but  Majors  asked  me 


80  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

if  I  had  sworn  while  on  the  trip.  I  told  him  I 
had  not.  He  asked  the  boys  if  they  had  heard  me 
swear  and  they  all  said  they  had  not.  Then  he 
handed  me  a  ten  dollar  gold  piece.  The  wagon 
master  said  I  lacked  a  little  of  standing  out  my 
guard  and  that  would  be  deducted  with  $50  paid 
for  my  horse.  Majors  eulogized  me  and  asked  me 
if  I  was  ever  before  paid  for  doing  right.  He  offered 
me  empolyment,  but  I  had  enough. 

When  I  got  back  to  the  Mission  that  evening  I 
had  a  very  favorable  report  and  showred  my  ten 
dollar  gold  piece.  Mat  Hadley  and  Jehu  Hadley 
came  that  day.  It  was  the  first  time  I  had  ever 
seen  them  to  know  them.  A  few  years  afterwards 
I  was  in  the  Danville  post  office  one  day  and  told 
my  story  but  I  felt  that  no  one  believed  me:  Mat, 
who  wras  standing  near,  slapped  me  on  the  shoulder 
and  said:  "I  know  you  now.  I  was  at  the  Mission 
when  you  came  back  with  your  ten  dollars." 

It  was  often  stated  in  that  country  and  once  in 
my  presence  that  an  Indianian  actually  drove  an  ox 
team  across  the  plains  and  back  without  swearing. 
I  recently  wrote  to  Cyrus  Rogers,  who  lives  in  the 
Indian  Territory,  and  asked  if  he  knew  of  any  In- 
dian or  white  man  who  was  there  when  we  were. 
His  answer  was  that  he  does  not,  that  a  few  years 
ago  he  saw  an  Indian  named  Blue  Jacket  who  was 
the  last  Shawnee.  He  is  now  dead.  I  have  been 
trying  to  learn  if  there  is  any  man  living  who  was  in 
Kansas  as  early  as  1854  and  Cry  us  is  the  only  one. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


LIFE  AT  THE  MISSION. 


AMUSING  INCIDENTS   WITH   THE   INDIANS. 

I  could  tell  many  amusing  things  of  the  life  at 
the  Mission.  There  was  a  tall  Indian  boy,  14  or  15 
years  old.  One  dark  night  Cyrus  and  I  were  stand- 
ing at  the  foot  of  the  stairway  that  ascended  from 
the  basement.  The  Indian  boy  came  down  the  steps 
and  as  he  landed  at  the  bottom  we  gathered  him  in 
and  dipped  him  in  a  big  trough  of  water.  He  could 
not  see  us  and  he  yelled  manfully.  Mr.  Menden- 
hall  came  out  and  said:  "What  is  thee  and  Jim 
doing  to  Moses?"  We  said:  "Nothing;  only  giving 
him  a  bath."  He  said:  "Yes,  you  are  hard  cases." 

There  were  six  or  eight  grown  Indian  girls  and 
they  never  seemed  to  like  me,  and  I  could  not  learn 
the  reason.  One  day  we  met  and  one  named  Ma- 
hala  said,  "Jim,  eh,  what  eh  you  eh  stay  eh  here 
for.  You  eh  no  Quaker.  You  white  man."  There 
was  no  use  to  try  to  convince  them  that  a  Quaker 
was  a  white  man.  They  looked  on  Quakers  as  a 
different  race.  Richard  Mendenhall's  wife,  Sarah, 


82  WHAT  I  SAW  ox  THE 

had  false  teeth,  the  first  I  had  seen.  Somtimes  she 
wore  them  and  sometimes  she  did  not.  The  In- 
dians noticed  this,  and  they  were  greatly  puzzled. 
So  they  all  met  her  one  day  and  Mahala  did  the  ques- 
tioning. She  said:  "Sarah,  what  eh  for  you  some- 
times have  teeth  and  some  eh  times  you  don't?" 
At  first  she  did  not  tell  them,  but  finally  she  did. 

There  were  three  Choteau  brothers,  Frenchmen, 
all  married  to  Indian  squaws.  Their  children  were 
educated  at  the  M.  E.  Mission  South,  or  the  Tom 
Johnson  Mission,  as  it  was  called.  One  of  their 
wives  told  me  that  she  was  born  in  Indiana, 
on  White  Lick,  when  the  Shawnees  were  moving 
from  Ohio  to  Kansas.  I  had  often  heard  my  par- 
ents and  other  old  settlers  speak  of  the  occurrence. 
A  child  died  and  was  buried  in  the  Irons  cemetery, 
located  on  the  east  bank  of  White  Lick  creek  in 
Heridricks  Co.,  Indiana,  the  first  burried  there. 
While  in  camp  a  child  was  born  in  the  company. 
This  woman's  age  corresponded  to  the  time  they 
were  camped  there.  While  they  were  at  camp  John 
McMullen  and  Uncle  Bob  Little  wrestled  with  the 
bucks  and  threw  them.  The  men  claimed  that 
their  grandfather  laid  out  St.  Louis.  The  name  is 
pronounced  Shoto. 

When  the  first  Kansas  emigrants  arrived,  there 
were  no  places  of  entertainment.  They  lived  most- 
ly in  camp.  It  was  wrell-known  that  the  Quakers 
were  abolitionists,  so  leading  free-state  people 
stopped  at  the  Mission.  The  Quakers  were  so  in- 
terested in  having  Kansas  a  free  state  that  they 
were  frequently  imposed  upon. 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  83 

One  singular  circumstance  I  learned  was  that 
there  is  no  vulgarity  in  the  Indian  language.  Indi- 
ans name  things  from  circumstances  that  take 
place  at  the  time.  If  a  child  is  born  and  a  horse 
dies,  the  child  is  called  "Dead  Horse."  Nearly  all 
of  the  Indian  children  put  in  school  were  renamed. 
A  great  many  of  their  names  are  ridiculously  vul- 
gar when  translated  into  English.  I  was  present 
when  they  enrolled  the  names  of  Indians  and  In- 
dian families  after  the  Kansas  treaty,  so  they  could 
receive  their  annuity  from  the  goverment.  They 
were  required  to  give  their  Indian  names  and  to  in- 
terpret them.  A  great  many  names  were  so  vulgar 
they  were  not  recorded. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


QUAKER  MISSION  FAMILY. 


A  VISIT    TO    SHOTOS— AN    EFFORT   TO    CIVILIZE   IN- 
DIAN  GIRLS. 

Eli  Tbayer  was  Superintendent  of  the  Quaker 
Mission.  He  had  a  wife  and  two  children,  a  son 
and  daughter.  They  were  from  West  Milton,  Mi- 
ami county,Ohk>.  Eli  was  an  invalid  and  was  seldom 
away  from  the  house.  Mrs.  Thayer  was  an  excel- 
lent, motherly  Quaker  lady.  She  was  a  mother  to 
the  Indian  children.  Elizabeth,  their  oldest,  was  a 
model  young  woman  and  reflected  much  sunshine 
at  the  Mission.  She  always  had  a  kind  wrord 
for  every  one.  The  Indian  girls  all  loved  her,  and 
her  example  shed  a  great  influence  over  them. 
James,  their  son,  was  a  lad  of  about  twelve.  Rich- 
ard Mendenhall,  the  teacher,  was  from  Plainfleld, 
Indiana.  His  family  consisted  of  a  wife  and  son. 
Mrs.  Mendenhall,  or  Sarah  Ann  as  she  was  called, 
was  a  plain,  motherly  Quaker  lady.  t  Charles  was 
about  ten  years  old  and  said  thee  and  thou.  Cyrus 
Rogers  was  a  young  man  from  Hendricks  county, 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  85 

Indiana,  He  was  the  Mission  Farmer.  Altogether 
I  never  knew  a  more  peaceable  collection  of  people. 
Even  the  Indian  children  were  more  submissive 
than  most  white  children.  I  never  heard  of  any 
kind  of  punishment  being  inflicted  by  Mendenhall 
in  the  Indian  school. 

One  Sunday  afternoon  Cyrus  Rogers  said  to  me: 
"  Jim,  lets  get  Elizabeth  to  coax  some  of  the  Indian 
girls  to  go  with  us  to  Shotos  and  have  some  fun." 
"  All  right,"  I  said.  So  we  proposed  the  matter  to  her 
and  she  was  in  for  it.  She  soon  made  arrangements 
with  four  of  the  girls  to  accompany  us.  Shotos 
lived  about  two  miles  to  the  west.  There  were  three 
Shoto  brothers,  all  married  to  squaws.  They  were 
intelligent  Frenchmen  and  owned  slaves  when  Kan- 
sas was  a  territory.  The  girls  were  walking  in  a 
group  a  little  ahead  of  us.  Cyrus  said,  "  Jim  I  will 
walk  with  Elizabeth  and  you  walk  with  one  of  the 
Indian  girls."  So  I  sprang  forward  and  overtook 
them  and  offered  my  services  to  Mahala,  as  she  was 
the  most  civilized  one  of  them.  It  was  a  great  sur- 
prise to  her.  She  suddenly  bucked,  then  I  halted; 
then  she  pitched  forward  and  I  ran  and  caught  up; 
then  she  would  dodge  back  and  forth,  and  finally  re- 
treated back  to  the  Mission.  I  discovered  I  was 
not  popular  with  the  Indian  girls.  They  never 
seemed  to  like  me.  The  meanest  thing  they  could 
say  was  to  call  me  a  white  man.  They  thought  the 
Quakers  were  a  different  tribe.  I  did  not  use  the 
plain  language.  I  told  Cyrus  that  I  would  walk 
with  Elizabeth  and  for  him  to  walk  with  one  of  the 
girls.  So  he  said  he  would  make  the  attempt,  but 


86  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

he  did  not  have  any  better  success  than  I.  He  had 
a  terrible  chase  after  one,  and  she  got  away  and 
went  back  to  the  Mission.  So  that  only  left  us  two. 
Matters  were  not  going  right.  We  did  not  know 
how  to  proceed  but  we  held  a  council  and  it  was  de- 
cided that  I  should  make  another  advance.  It  was 
a  forlorn  hope,  but  I  had  orders  and  must  not  show 
cowardice;  so  I  made  another  effort  and  completely 
failed.  She  "would  pitch  out  ahead  ol  me  and  then 
jump  back  behind  me,  and  I  would  charge  up  to  her 
side.  She  called  me  all  sorts  of  names,  some  in  In- 
dian and  some  in  English.  One  I  remember  was 
"Skunk."  She  went  back  to  the  Mission,  so  that 
only  left  us  one  and  we  did  not  want  to  lose  her,  so 
concluded  not  to  try  to  go  with  her  until  we  return- 
ed. We  thought  that  certainly  by  the  time  we  went 
back  we  would  have  her  civilized  so  we  could  go  with 
her.  We  finally  arrived  at  the  Shoto  house  and  en- 
tered. We  found  two  old  squaws  sitting  in  the 
room  and  neither  could  speak  a  word  in  English, 
but  they  soon  brought  the  two  daughters  in  and 
they  invited  us  into  the  Indian  parlor.  The  house 
was  a  large,  double-room  log  house  with  a  kitchen 
shedded  to  one  side.  The  parlor  was  neatly  fur- 
nished. The  young  ladies  were  educated  at  the  M. 
E.  Mission  South.  They  were  rather  good  looking 
and  reasonably  intelligent,  but  adopted  the  customs 
of  white  people  and  made  themselves  agreeable. 
We  had  a  pleasant  evening  and  remained  quite  a 
while.  When  we  started  to  return  the  Shoto  girls 
went  a  short  distance  with  us.  They  then  bade  us 
good  bye  and  started  to  returned  to  the  house. 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  87 

By  that  time  we  reached  the  timber  which  ex- 
tended to  the  Quaker  Mission.  So  the  time  had 
now  fully  arrived  to  make  an  effort  to  break  in  our 
only  remaining  wild  Indian  girl.  We  felt  sure  we 
had  the  sinch  on  her:  she  was  a  long  distance  from 
the  Mission.  It  was  dark  and  the  road  was  quite 
lonely  and  certainly  she  would  accept  an  escort  and 
be  delighted  with  the  opportunity;  so  taking  all  into 
consideration  it  gave  me  great  confidence,  so  I 
approached  her  in  as  gentle  a  manner  as  possible 
and  she  started  to  run  as  fast  as  she  could  go  so  I 
could  not  do  anything  but  run  after  her.  When  I 
would  overtake  her  she  would  dodge  toone  side  and 
run  back.  I  gave  her  several  chases  and  she  took 
to  the  brush  but  Indian  like  she  could  out  run  me 
in  the  brush,  so  she  escaped  from  me  and  the  last 
I  heard  of  her  she  was  making  the  brush  crack 
so  I  gave  up  the  chase.  I  had  got  the  mitten  before 
but  I  never  had  such  an  experience  before.  We 
never  saw  her  any  more  and  were  afraid  she  would 
not  be  able  to  make  her  way  back  to  the  Mission. 
We  approached,  with  fear  and  trembling.  But 
when  we  got  to  the  house  Richard  Mendenhall  came 
out  meeting  us  and  said  with  great  earnestness 
Cyrus  what  have  you  and  James  been  doing  to  the 
Indian  girls.  We  answered  by  saying  the  object 
at  the  Mission  is  to  civilize  them  and  teach  them 
the  customs  of  white  people  and  we  had  only  been 
giving  them  a  lesson.  He  said  they  had  been  com- 
ing in  one  at  a  time  ever  since  we  started  and 
everyone  had  told  a  bad  story  about  how  they  had 
been  treated.  The  one  that  got  away  and  made  her 


88  WHAT  I  SAW  ox  THE 

escape,  had  got  in  a  long  time  before  our  arrival 
I  found  out  later  where  we  made  a  grand  mistake. 
We  tresspassed  on  Indian  customs.  The  saying  is 
when  you  are  in  Rome  do  as  Rome  does.  When  a 
young  buck  Indian  goes  with  a  young  squaw  he 
either  goes  in  front  of  her  or  behind  her.  It  is  bad 
manners  to  walk  at  her  side.  Indians  while  travel- 
ing on  ponies  always  go  single.  It  shows  a  lack  of 
sociability  which  Indians  are  much  noted  for. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


INDIANS  RECEIVE  LAND  AND  MONEY  FROM 
THE  GOVERNMENT. 


INDIAN  DRESS — DR.  BARKER  SUPT.  OF  BAPTIST    MIS- 
SION, CAMP  MEETING. 

What  was  known  as  the  Missouri  Compromise 
act  which  was  passed  in  1820,  which  prohibited 
slavery  north  and  west  of  Missouri  was  repealed  in 
1854.  The  Territory  of  Nebraska  was  divided  into 
two  parts.  The  south  part  was  named  Kansas  and 
the  north  part  retaining  the  name  Nebraska.  The 
Territory  was  purchased  from  the  Indians  which 
included  several  tribes.  Each  tribe  had  a  reserva- 
tion set  off.  My  recollection  is  that  each  Indian 
was  allowed  200  acres  of  land  and  their  annuity  in 
money  accruing  from  land  sold  to  the  government. 
I  remember  that  just  before  the  books  were  closed 
on  the  Shawnee  land  an  old  Indian  came  down  from 
the  Kaw  River  in  an  excited  manner  to  an  old  In- 
dian Church  House,  where  they  were  in  the  act  of 
completing  the  enrollment  and  made  the  announce- 


90  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

ment  that  his  wife  had  twins  which  entitled  him  to 
400  acres  more  land,  besides  a  large  sum  of  annuity 
money.  He  had  already  had  his  large  family  en- 
rolled and  the  new  arrival  was  a  great  addition 
to  the  amount  of  land  and  money  he  was  previous- 
ly  entitled  to.  It  caused  a  great  deal  of  amusement 
for  the  Indians  who  were  less  fortunate.  It  wras  a 
great  harvest  for  the  merchants  when  the  Indians 
received  their  annual  payments.  They  knew  just 
how  much  each  Indian  would  draw  from  the  gov- 
ernment and  they  would  credit  them  to  something 
near  the  amount. 

I  once  heard  John  B.  Scott,  who  was  agent  for 
the  Sac  and  Fox  Indians  remark  that  at  that  time 
the  Indians  owed  him  ten  thousand  dollars.  Some 
one  remarked:  "You  don't  expect  to  collect  near  all 
of  it  do  you?"  He  said  he  expected  to  collect  every 
cent  of  it.  He  said  on  pay-day  he  would  be  on 
hand  with  his  book  where  the  Indians  would  have  to 
pass  him  after  they  had  received  their  money  and 
every  Indian  would  stop  and  pay  the  full  amount 
of  their  indebtedness.  He  said, '  'Of  course  it  would 
not  be  safe  to  allow  them  to  pass  without  a  set- 
tlement, for  most  Indians  are  great  spendthrifts". 
Indians  are  the  best  customers  in  the  world. 
My  observation  was  that  most  Indian  traders  got 
rich  who  were  out  on  the  frontiers  in  an  early  day. 
Indians  don't  stand  on  price  if  an  article  is  attract- 
ive with  red  predominating.  A  credit  is  also  a 
great  inducement.  Many  of  them  feel  as  though 
they  were  getting  something  for  nothing.  One  of 
the  many  articles  of  dress  with  the  squaws  is  a  fine 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  91 

shawl  with  flashy  colors.  It  was  no  uncommon 
thing  for  them  to  pay  fifty  dollars  for  a  shawl  and 
frequently  twice  that  amount.  I  frequently  saw 
them  riding  pony  back  in  a  calico  dress,  a  fifty 
dollar  shawl,  a  gay  handkerchief  tied  on  their  heads, 
and  hankerchief  tied  on  each  arm  and  a  number  of 
fiashy  ones  tied  around  their  waist.  Away  they 
would  ride  to  or  from  town  with  their  pony  going 
at  a  break-neck  speed.  While  at  the  Quaker  Mis- 
sion I  often  heard  Mrs.  Thayer,  the  superintend- 
ents wife,  and  Sarah  Ann,  wife  of  Richard  Menden- 
hall,  lecture  the  Indian  girls  about  taking  better 
care  of  their  clothing.  The  girls  would  reply,  "Oh 
don't  care,  get  more,  not  long  till  annuity. "  That 
meant  the  government  would  pay  an  annual  pay- 
ment  in  money.  They  all  had  the  word  annuity 
down  fine.  They  all  looked  forward  with  a  bright 
anticipation  to  pay  day.  I  often  heard  them  ex- 
claim "I  will  get  so  and  so  when  I  get  annuity."  A 
young  man  by  the  name  of  Jo  DeShane  a  half  breed 
Shawnee  whose  father  was  a  Frenchman  was 
a  favorite  clerk  in  a  big  Indian  store  in  Westport. 
He  spake  a  number  of  Indian  languages  beside 
French  and  English.  He  could  adapt  his  conver- 
sation to  a  great  diversity  of  customers.  During  the 
sickly  season  in  hot  weather  he  would  take  a  vaca- 
tion which  he  spent  at  the  Quaker  Mission  where 
he  was  always  welcomed.  He  was  one  of  the  neat- 
est young  men  I  ever  saw.  He  always  dressed  in 
the  finest  clothes  which  was  of  the  latest  fashion. 
He  never  allowed  a  speck  of  dirt  on  his  clothes. 
His  hair  was  rather  long  and  as  black  as  a  raven 


92  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

which  was  combed  and  brushed  to  perfection. 
During  harvest  time  at  the  Mission  he  would  go 
out  and  make  a  full  hand.  He  was  very  industrious. 
He  wore  his  finest  clothes  in  the  harvest  field  which 
were  as  neatly  brushed  as  if  he  had  been  going  to  a 
party.  Dr.  Barker  the  superintendent  of  the  Bap- 
tist Mission  was  perhaps  the  first  or  one  of  the 
earliest  Missionaries  in  Kansas.  I  think  he  told 
me  he  had  been  there  near  forty  years.  The  Mis- 
sion House  stood  in  a  dense  forest  of  timber.  He 
told  me  when  he  built  the  Mission  house  he  built  it 
in  an  open  prairie  and  the  timber  had  grown  up 
since.  The  Dr.  took  great  interest  in  teaching  the 
Indians  music.  He  said  all  Indians  had  a  talent  for 
music.  I  attended  preaching  several  times  at  the 
Indian  church  where  the  Dr.  preached.  An  In- 
dian interpreter  stood  by  the  Dr's.  side.  His  name 
wag  Cormoppee.  Barker  would  speak  a  sentence 
in  English  and  then  Cormoppee  would  repeat  the 
same  in  Shawnee  for  the  benefit  of  old  Indians  who 
could  not  understand  English.  Dr.  Barker  transla- 
ted a  collection  of  old  familiar  hymns  such  as 
"When  I  can  read  my  title  clear,"  "Amazing  grace," 
etc.  The  hymns  were  arranged  in  the  book  so  the 
hymn  on  the  left  was  in  English  and  on  the  opposite 
page  the  same  hymn  was  in  Shawnee  Indian.  So 
the  singers  could  take  choice  so  both  Indian  and 
English  were  sang  at  the  same  time.  I  some  times 
sang  in  Indian,  there  was  no  trouble  in  pronounc- 
ing the  words,  it  was  the  novelty  of  the  thing  I  liked. 
I  attended  an  Indian  camp  meeting  which  was 
held  by  the  Shawnee  Indians.  It  was  well  attend- 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  £3 

ed,  some  Indians  of  other  tribes  also  attended. 
The  Indians  are  quite  noisy  in  their  meetings. 
The  Indians  like  the  Quakers  but  don't  join  the 
church.  I  never  knew  but  one  Indian  to  belong  to 
the  Friends  church.  There  was  an  old  Indian  who 
belonged  to  the  Friends  church.  He  attended  wor- 
ship every  Sunday  at  the  Quaker  Mission,  I  asked 
Mendenhall  why  they  never  joined  the  Friends  and 
he  said  the  Quakers  were  too  quiet.  They  like  noisy 
meetings.  They  like  to  sing  loud;  shout  and  make 
lots  of  noise.  Indians  have  strict  rules. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


KANSAS    OPEN   FOR  SETTLERS. 


EMIGRANT  AID  SOCIETY — CONTEST  BETWEEN  NORTH 

AND   SOUTH    BEGINS— CHANGE    THE    NAME     OF 

A  TOWN. 

Kansas  was  opened  for  settlement  the  first  of 
June  1854.  But  few  settlers  moved  into  the  Ter- 
ritory until  fall.  The  pro-slavery  people  of  the 
south  and  especially  of  Missouri  was  greatly  sur- 
prised that  there  was  such  a  rush  of  Northern  peo- 
ple to  Kansas.  They  felt  sure  of  making  it  a  slave 
state  so  there  was  a  great  effort  both  north  and 
south  to  win  the  Territory.  The  south  for  slavery, 
and  the  north  for  freedom  when  it  would  be  admit- 
ted into  the  union.  The  pro-slavery  people  held 
meeting  and  passed  resolutions  in  order  to  intim- 
idate the  abolitionist  and  in  the  meantime  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Emigrant  Aid  Society  was  organized. 
They  gave  free  transportation  and  arms  for  defence. 
About  the  only  conveyance  from  the  east  to  Kansas 
was  by  steam  boats  on  the  Missouri  river.  Every 
boat  was  loaded  with  eastern  people.  A  great 


SANTA  FE  TRAII,  95 

many  Bostonians,  a  large  portion  of  them  only  re- 
mained a  few  days.  It  was  too  great  a  change  for 
them,  so  they  returned  to  the  east.  Some  only  re- 
mained over  one  night.  A  committee  was  sent  out  by 
the  Aid  Society  to  select  a  town  site  and  lay  out  a 
yankee  city.  It  resulted  in  the  laying  out  of  Law- 
rence but  that  was  not  what  it  was  named  at 
first.  They  called  their  future  city  Wakarusa 
after  a  stream  near  by.  The  leaders  made  their 
headquarters  at  the  Quaker  Mission  where  I  was 
stopping.  At  times  the  house  was  crowded;  it  was 
the  only  convenient  place  to  stay.  They  felt  they 
were  among  free  state  people  where  they  could  give 
expression  to  their  sentiments.  The  mails  from  the 
east  were  uncertain  as  the  steamboats  carried  all 
the  mail  from  the  east.  Emigrants  were  quite  anx- 
ious to  hear  from  their  friends  in  the  east.  When 
one  of  the  number  received  a  letter  they  were  near- 
ly crazy  to  hear  the  news.  So  they  passed  reso- 
lutions that  all  letters  not  of  a  private  nature  should 
be  read  out  so  all  could  have  the  benefit  of  the 
latest  news.  I  was  generally  around  and  heard  their 
letters  vocalized.  At  times  it  was  quite  amusing. 
All  spoke  in  high  praise  of  the  beautiful  Indian 
name  they  had  adopted.  Wakarusa  was  such  a 
beautiful  name.  It  was  so  romantic.  They  liked 
it  because  it  was  an  Indian  name.  They  spoke 
words  of  caution  to  not  allow  any  western  phrases 
to  creep  into  their  colony.  Lets  make  it  purely  an 
eastern  city  and  keep  up  the  customs  of  eastern 
people.  Every  letter  spoke  in  high  praise  of  the 
I  eautif ul  name  Wakarusa.  A  city  by  that  name 


96  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

would  of  its  self  be  a  great  send-off.  But  finally 
some  one  of  an  enquiring  turn  of  mind  wrote  a  let- 
ter and  said  they  would  like  to  have  the  meaning  of 
"Wakarusa,  it  certainly  must  have  a  good  meaning. 
No  one  had  ever  thought  of  it  before,  it  was  a  stun- 
ner. No  one  knew.  They  ascertained  that  it  was 
a  Kaw  Indian  word,  but  theKaw  Indians  had  gone 
to  Council  Grove.  They  were  determined  to  find 
out  if  possible.  So  they  sent  a  committee  to  Coun- 
cil Grove  some  150  miles  to  the  southwest  on  the  old 
Santa  Fe  trail  to  interview  the  Indians.  They 
found  some  very  aged  Kaws  who  gave  the  origin  of 
the  name.  They  said  a  great  many  years  ago  a 
party  of  Kaws  YvTere  crossing  the  stream  on  foot. 
All  got  across  except  an  old  squaw  who  made  a 
great  demonstration  when  the  cold  water  struck 
her  about  the  waist,  it  greatly  amused  the  Indians. 
So  they  cried  out  Wakarusa  wrhich  gave  rise  to  the 
name  of  the  stream.  So  they  dropped  the  name 
"Wakarusa.  It  put  a  damper  on  them.  So  they 
were  at  sea  for  quite  a  while.  Other  names  were 
proposed  in  nearly  all  their  letters  but  they  could 
not  agree  on  any  name.  So  finally  it  was  announc- 
ed that  the  president  and  treasurer  of  their  society, 
a  wealthy  Bostonian  by  the  name  of  Lawrence,  pro- 
posed that  if  they  would  name  the  city  Lawrence 
he  would  make  the  future  city  a  present  of  a  library 
worth  several  thousand  dollars,  I  could  see  it  put 
a  smile  on  the  guests  of  the  Quaker  Mission.  The 
name  was  agreed  on  at  once.  It  is  not  always  best 
to  be  too  particular  about  the  interpretation  of  In- 
dian names.  Let  Indian  names  alone  and  don't  try 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRA!S  97 

to  anglicize  them.  Indian  names  are  all  right.  The 
interpretation  of  Chicago  is  Skunk.  You  don't 
hear  of  the  citizens  of  that  burg  talking  of  changing 
the  name.  There  is  a  town  in  Kansas  and  one  in 
northern  Indiana  named  Wakarusa.  There  is  no 
stigma  attached  to  the  name. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


RICHARD  MENDENHALL, 


A  QUAKER   KEIiO. 

If  I  were  asked  who,  in  my -opinion,  were  the 
three  greatest  heroes  that  figured  in  Kansas  during 
the  "Border  Ruffian  Warfare,"  I  should,  without 
hesitation  name  James  H.  Lane,  John  Brown  and 
Richard  Mendenhall;  but  the  weapons  used  by 
Lane  and  Brown  were  quite  different  from  those 
used  by  Mendenhall.  The  two  lirst  named  used 
fire-arms  and  no  braver  men  ever  faced  death  in 
the  cause  of  freedom.  Their  very  names  was  a  ter- 
ror to  the  Border  Ruffians.  They  proved  them- 
selves to  be  men  who  had  'nerves  of  steel.  They 
stood  their  ground  and  fought  the  enemy  when 
they  were  greatly  in  the  minority.  The  early  set- 
tlers of  Kansas  never  fully  realized  the  protection 
they  received  from  Lane  and  Brown.  Mendenhall 
did  not  fight  with  fire-arms.  He  was  a  true  Qua- 
ker and  believed  the  "pen  was  mighter  than  the 
sword,"  We  never  saw  his  name  mentioned  in  de- 
scribing bloody  conflicts;  but  every  moment  of  his 


RICHARD   MENDENHALL 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL,  101 

time  that  he  had  to  spare  was  occupied  in  writing 
letters  pleading  the  freedom  of  Kansas.  I  have  no 
doubt  he  accomplished  more  for  the  cause  of  free- 
dom for  Kansas  than  any  man  who  ever  lived  there. 
He  never  seemed  to  manifest  the  least  degree  of 
fear.  In  conversation  or  in  his  writing  he  was  out- 
spoken on  the  blighting  influence  of  slavery.  He 
wrote  thousands  of  letters  that  were  published  in 
most  of  the  leading  papers  of  the  country.  He  de- 
nounced the  pro-slavery  party  with  all  the  force  his 
words  could  convey.  He  plead  with  the  people  of 
the  North  to  not  let  the  threats  of  the  pro-slavery 
ruffians  intimidate  them.  He  appealed  to  the 
friends  of  freedom  to  try  to  induce  the  emigration 
of  free-state  people  to  fill  the  territory  with  liber- 
ty-loving people,  so  that  wbea  the  time  came  to  ad- 
mit it  into  the  Union  it  would  enter  as  a  free  state. 
Nearly  every  mail  that  went  out  carried  letters  ad- 
dressed to  all  parts  of  the  country  earnestly  plead- 
ing the  cause  of  freedom  in  Kansas.  He  became 
so  well  known  that  letters  of  inquiry  poured  in  by 
the  hundred.  I  have  heard  it  stated  that  he  received 
the  largest  mail  of  any  man  in  Kansas.  No  man 
had  greater  notoriety  in  the  territory  at  that  time, 
and  all  knew  he  was  an  ultra  Abolitionist  and  they 
were  the  class  of  settlers  most  despised  by  the 
pro-slavery  element,  a  fact  which  Richard  fully  re- 
alized. It  seemed  to  me  that  he  was  offering  him- 
self as  a  sacrifice  in  the  cause  of  liberating  the 
slaves.  It  was  strange  to  nie  how  he  escaped  with 
his  life.  He  remained  in  Kansas  during  the  entire 
struggle,  denouncing  the  enemies  of  the  free-state 


102  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

cause.  He  openly  expressed  himself  at  all  times. 
When  "his  friends  cautioned  him  to  be  more  conser- 
vative his  reply  was;  "He  was  only  contending  for 
the  cause  of  justice."  During  the  five  years  of  the 
Border  Ruffian  Warfare  he  remained  in  the  thickest 
of  it.  No  man  was  better  known  and  no  man  ex 
pressed  himself  stronger  against  the  pro-slavery 
element  than  he,  and  yet  he  was  never  molested  or 
even  threatened  by  any  one. 

I  think  it  was  in  1855  that  he  left  the  Quaker  Mis- 
sion Farm  and  took  a  claim  a  little  south  of  Osa- 
watornie,  which  is  close  to  the  western  boundary  of 
Missouri.  Many  of  the  tragedies  committed  dur- 
ing the  Kansas  troubles  was  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Osawatoniie.  In  1859  I  was  living  at  Neosho 
Falls,  in  Wood  son  county,  and  it  was  while  there 
we  bad  our  first  election  under  the  territorial  law, 
and  I  was  employed  to  carry  the  returns  toTopeka 
on  foot.  The  county  paid  me  one  dollar  a  day  and 
expenses.  On  my  return  I  went  to  Osawatomie. 
It  was  a  long  ways  out  of  my  way.  I  spent  a  week 
at  Richard  Mendenhalls.  His  farm  was  peculiar- 
ily  situated.  Richard  called  his  place  CresentHill. 
I  could  not  give  a  better  description  of  it  than  to 
compare  it  to  ahorse  shoe  lying  with  the  corks  to 
the  west  and  his  farm  inside  the  shoe  and  his 
house  between  the  corks.  It  was  a  beautiful  place 
nearly  surrounded  by  a  rocky  ridge.  Richard  had 
built  a  stone  fence  which  enclosed  his  farm.  He 
took  me  on  top  of  the  bluff  over  the  cork  of  the 
horse  shoe,  which  pointed  to  the  north-west,  and 
showed  me  where  he  sat  on  a  rock  in  plain  view  of 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  .  103 

Osawatomie  and  saw  a  large  band  of  border  ruffians 
cross  the  stream  from  the  north  and  fire  the  town, 
and  retreat  back  across  the  stream  and  disappear 
to  the  north.  He  said  he  expected  they  would  pay 
him  a  visit  but  he  believed  his  obscurity  saved  him. 
He  said  if  they  had  started  in  the  direction  of  his 
place  he  should  have  placed  himself  and  family  in 
hiding.  I  was  told  of  a  circumstance  that  took 
place  in  the  neighborhood  a  short  time  before  I 
was  there.  A  slave  who  was  concealed  in  the  neigh- 
borhood by  a  school  teacher  and  others,  was  a  fugi- 
tive from  across  the  line.  His  old  master  came  on 
horse-back  and  made  inquiry  and  he  was  told  that 
his  slave  was  in  the  neighborhood  and  they  would 
deliver  him  up.  So  the  master  waited  till  they 
brought  out  the  slave.  They  made  the  master 
change  suits  of  clothes  with  the  slave  and  put  the 
slave  on  the  horse  and  started  him  west  and 
marched  the  master  on  foot  across  the  line.  Too 
bad,  too  bad. 

[The  following  letter  written  by  Richard  Men- 
denhall  to  the  Danville  Advertiser  and  published 
by  that  paper  June  24th,  1854,  will  b9  of  interest 
to  our  readers.] 

JOTTINGS  FROM   THE   WEST. 

KANSAS  TERPJTORY, 
6th  month,  5th,  1854. 

A  meeting  was  held  in  our  post  town,  Westport, 
Missouri,  a  few  days  ago,  to  consider  what  steps  should 
be  taken  to  prevent  emigration  from  the  free  States,  into 
this  Territory.  Some  fiery  speeches  were  made,  urging  the 


104  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

people  to  keep  back  such  emigration,  peaceable  if  they 
could,  but  with  the  musket  and  bowie  knife,  if  they  must; 
at  all  hazards  to  keep  it  out.  The  speakers  admitted  that 
there  was  no  hope  of  securing  Nebraska  for  Slavary,  but 
they  were  determined  to  carry  it  into  Kansas,  come  what 
might.  Resolutions  were  passed,  embodying  the  sentiment 
of  the  speeches,  and  a  wish  express  that  they  might  be 
published  all  over  the  Union.  I  hope  that  they  may  be 
published  in  every  paper  in  the  free  States,  that  the  people 
may  see  to  what  desperate  expedients  the  slave  power  can 
resort,  not  that  we  entertain  any  fear  that  such  a  move- 
ment will  be  made.  The  advocates  of  slavery  extension 
cannot  be  so  lost  to  reason,  as  seriously  to  think  of  such 
a  thing.  These  fire  eating  orators  failed  to  get  up  a  spirit 
of  enthusiasm.  I  came  into  the  town,  soon  after  the  meet- 
ing closed,  and  I  discovered  no  excitement  more  than 
usual,  and  though  I  learned  incidentally  that  there  had 
been  a  meeting,  I  did  not  know  what  were  its  objects  until 
some  days  afterwards.  It  is  not  believed  that  any  con- 
siderable number  of  the  people  of  Missouri,  would  sanction 
such  a  measure.  Many  of  them  are  oppossed  to  slavrey 
and  some  speak  out  openly  against  it.  The  pronunciations 
of  the  speakers  were  said  to  be  rich.  They  spoke  in  high 
terms  of  Douglas,  or  Dooglas  as  they  called  him. 

Where  are  your  advocates  of  "State  rights  and  squatter 
sovereignty?"  "What  say  they  to  such  a  movement  as 
this?"  Now  that  the  question  cf  slavery  is  left  to  the 
people  of  the  territories,  will  they  see  that  the  advocates 
of  freedom  have  a  fair  chance,  or  will  they  hatch  up  some 
plea  to  justify  these  fire  eaters? 

Such  a  measure  would  be  a  heavy  blow  on  the  wedge  that 
seems  likely  to  sever  the  Union.  I  have  always  been  an 
advocate  of  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union  so  long  as  it  sub- 
serves the  general  good  of  the  people,  but  when  it  becomes 
the  same  means  of  extending  slavery  into  all  our  free  ter- 
ritories, I  say  down  with  the  Union,  I  would  gladly  see  it 
rent  to  pieces. 

There  are  a  few  bold  spirits  here,  who   will  stand   up  to 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  105 

the  contest  for  freedom,  to  the  last  extremity,  and  we  trust 
that  the  number  may  soon  be  increased  by  accession  from 
the  free  States.  Let  no  one  be  deterred  from  coming  by 
these  fiery  demonstrations  of  slavery.  Just  keep  cool,  and 
come  ahead.  We  intend  to  kindle  a  fire  here  for  liberty 
that  will  frighten  the  enemies  of  freedom  back  into  the  dark 
dens  of  slavery. 

RICHARD  MENDENHALL. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 
L.  X.  AUBEAY. 


A  GREAT  CHARACTER. 

L.  X.  Aubra-y  was  a  great  character  on  the  plains. 
A  history  of  the  Santa  Fe  trail  without  mention  of 
him  would  be  as  incomplete  as  a  history  of  the  civil 
war  without  a  mention  of  Gen.  Grant.  Yet  I  doubt 
if  his  name  appears  in  any  history  of  frontier  life. 
His  most  active  career  was  during  Gen.  Fremont's 
explorations  of  Oregon  and  California.  His  deeds 
were  overlooked  by  historians  and  very  little  is 
known  of  them.  When  I  landed  on  the  border,  the 
name  of  L.  X.  Aubray  was  a  household  word.  He 
was  a  great  freighter.  He  was  also  a  trader  on  his 
own  account  and  shipped  to  many  points  in  the 
southwest.  He  was  tall  and  straight  as  an  Indian, 
a  man  of  nerve  and  absolutely  without  fear.  The 
Indians  regarded  him  as  a  spirit  and  he  was  never 
molested  by  them.  He  was  a  great  horse  back 
rider  and  his  endurance  in  the  saddle  was  without 
parallel.  He  wagered  large  sums  of  money  that  he 
could  travel  long  distances  in  a  given  time.  In 


OLD  SANTA  Fa  TRAIR  107 

1853  he  wagered  that  he  could  ride  from  Santa  Pe 
to  Independence,  Missouri,  in  five  days.  He  had 
several  trains  on  the  trail  with  a  horse  of  great  en- 
durance in  each.  So  he  could  exchange  a  mount  in 
a  minute  and  proceed  at  breakneck  speed.  He 
slept  one  hour  at  Council  Grove.  He  then  had  150 
miles  to  travel  to  reach  Independence.  When  he 
reached  that  point,  his  friends  had  to  take  him  from 
his  horse  in  an  almost  unconscious  state.  The  dis- 
tance was  800  miles  and  he  road  it  in  a  little  over 
four  and  one-half  days  and  won  the  bet.  In  1854, 
he  made  a  bet  that  he  could  travel  from  San  Fran- 
cisco to  Santa  Fe  in  a  certain  time.  When  he  ar- 
rived at  Santa  Fe,  an  army  officer  greeted  him.  As 
is  the  custom  in  that  country,  they  had  some  drinks 
at  the  bar  and  while  drinking,  Aubray  asked  the 
officer  what  had  become  of  the  newspaper  he  had 
published  at  Albuquerque.  The  officer  said  it  died 
a  natural  death.  Aubray  said:  "It  ought  to  have 
died.  You  published  lies  on  my  traveling.''  In  an 
instant,  each  drew  his  weapon,  Aubray  a  revolver 
and  the  officer  a  knife.  The  officer  got  in  his  work 
too  quick  and  sent  his  knife  to  Aubray's  heart  who 
expired  immediately. 

So  ended  the  career  of  a  man  of  great  courage 
who  left  the  world  without  a  written  history.  I 
suppose  it  would  be  hard  to  find  one  who  had  ever 
heard  of  him.  The  wonderful  cowboy  stories  and 
the  Buffalo  Bill  fame  has  all  been  made  since  he 
passed  off  the  stage.  What  I  have  written  trans- 
pired before  cowboy  days  and  before  William  Cody 
was  ever  heard  of. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


OLD  JOHN  BROWN. 

John  Brown  was  born  in  Tarkington,  Connecticut, 
May  the  9th  1800.  His  father's  family  moved  to 
Ohio  and  settled  near  Akron  at  a  small  town  named 
Kent,  a  few  miles  east  of  Akron.  In  1816  he  joined 
the  Congregational  church.  He  married  Dantha 
Lu£k  in  1821.  In  1830  his  first  wife  died,  in  1833 
July  llth  he  married  Mary  Ann  Day.  He  was  en- 
gaged in  raising  sheep  and  was  a  dealer  in  wool. 
He  had  much  experience  in  the  sheep  and  wool  bus- 
iness but  was  not  a  successful  business  man.  At 
times  he  lost  a  good  deal  of  money  dealing  in  wool 
but  it  is  said  he  was  an  excellent  judge  of  that  pro- 
duct. He  was  sympathetic  and  always  opposed  to 
the  institution  of  slavery.  When  Kansas  was 
opened  for  settlement  June  the  1st,  1854,  five 
of  his  sons  went  to  Kansas.  Their  names 
were  John,  Jason,  Owen,  Frederic  and  Salmon. 
Jason's  boy  four  years  old  died  on  the  way.  They 
took  almost  no  weapons  but  as  many  tools  and  fruit 
trees  as  they  could  carry.  Brown  was  keeping  well 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  111 

posted  on  the  disturbances  by  the  pro-slavery  party 
in  the  Territory,  and  he  told  his  boys  if  any  of  them 
had  an  idea  of  going  to  Kansas  to  help  defeat  the 
pro-slavery  people  he  had  no  objection,  but  as  far 
as  he  was  concerned  he  felt  that  he  had  a  work  to 
do  before  going.  They  afterwards  believed  he  had 
reference  to  a  plan  he  was  divising  for  getting  up  an 
insurrection  somewhere  in  Virginia  for  the  purpose 
of  freeing  the  slaves.  Although  he  had  never  men- 
tioned it  to  them.  He  was  known  to  have  visited 
Fred  Douglas  and  Garrett  Smith  to  consult  on  his 
insurection  scheme.  In  1855  Brown  went  to  Kan- 
sas. His  sons  had  located  near  a  place  called 
Osawatomie.  They  went  to  work  breaking  prairie 
and  trying  to  get  ready  for  farming,  but  they  had 
to  undergo  many  hardships  and  privations.  They 
suffered  a  good  deal  from  ague  and  their  subsistence 
was  quite  meager.  John  Brown  also  took  up  a 
claim  afterwards  in  the  same  neighborhood  and 
proceeded  to  break  prairie  in  as  good  faith  as  any 
other  settler.  It  was  near  the  Missouri  line  and 
was  at  the  time  one  of  the  hottest  contested  places 
in  Kansas.  The  question  was  whether  Kansas 
should  be  a  free  or  slave  state.  Before  the  Mis- 
souri compromise  it  was  thought  the  question  was 
forever  settled  that  slavery  could  under  no  circum- 
stances be  introduced  in  Kansas  or  Nebraska.  But 
the  act  introduced  by  Stephen  Douglas  which  was 
passed  in  1854  left  it  to  a  majority  of  the  settlers  to 
determined  whether  it  should  enter  into  statehood 
free  or  slave.  The  slaveholders  across  the  line  in 
Missouri  thought  it  would  never  do  to  allow  Kansas 


112  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

to  become  a  free  state.  It  would  injure  them  be- 
cause there  were  thousands  of  slaves  on  the  border 
and  they  would  be  stolen  by  the  abolitionist.  So 
free  state  men  confronted  pro-slavery  men  with 
hostility  and  it  was  war  from  the  beginning.  The 
Brown  brothers  wrere  forced  to  take  sides.  It  was 
only  a  short  time  until  the  ire  of  John  Brown  was 
stirred  up.  There  was  a  band  of  outlaws  living  on 
Osawatomie  creek,  who  were  engaged  in  robbing 
and  killing  the  free  state  people.  Brown  saw  it 
was  necessary  to  make  some  kind  of  an  awful  dem- 
onstration, so  he  ordered  out  a  lot  of  men  who  had 
banded  themselves  together  for  protection,  went  to 
their  cabins  and  slew  five  of  them.  It  was  said 
that  Brown  did  not  commit  the  deed  himself  but 
directed  the  execution,  it  had  a  tendency  to  quiet 
matters  for  a  while  at  least.  In  December  1855 
Jim  Lane  appointed  Brown  captain  of  a  company 
called  the  Free  State  Rangers.  The  Emigrant  Aid 
Society  of  New  England  were  sending  settlers  into 
Kansas  as  fast  as  possible,  so  as  to  out-vote  the 
pro-slavery  settlers.  They  also  sent  arms  and 
ammunition  to  help  their  people  to  protect 
themselves:  The  Missourians  made  a  raid  on 
Lawrence.  Brown  gave  them  fight  and  repulsed 
them,  but  they  killed  one  free  state  settler.  Brown 
conscientiously  believed  that  nothing  would  ever 
give  the  slaves  their  freedom  but  war.  At  first 
there  were  a  portion  of  conservative  free  state  men 
who  believed  that  Brown  was  too  ultra.  By  this 
time  there  were  two  legislatures,  one  free  state, 
which  made  Topeka  its  capital  and  the  pro- slavery 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  113 

legislature  chose  Lecompton  for  their  State  capital. 
Each  claimed  they  represented  the  legal  party  ac- 
cording to  the  constitution.  Each  had  an  army  in. 
camp,  so  it  finally  resulted  in  a  bush-whacking  con- 
test. One  of  the  cleverest  exploits  that  Brown  did 
was  in  ascertaining  the  strength  of  a  camp  of  Mis- 
sourians.  There  was  a  large  body  of  them  in  camp- 
ing, so  he  took  two  of  his  men  and  a  tripod  and  sur- 
veyed a  line  through  their  camp  carefully  chaining 
it.  They  took  him  to  be  a  government  surveyor  and 
he  was  not  molested.  In  that  way  Brown  ascertain- 
ed their  strength.  They  told  him  of  their  plan  of 
raiding  Old  John  Brown.  At  times  Brown  became 
very  impatient  with  the  Northern  people  for  not 
showing  a  bolder  front.  It  is  said  that  he  held  re- 
ligious services  in  camp  and  that  he  was  being  di- 
rected by  a  higher  power.  On  June  27th  he  with 
twenty-seven  men  attacked  a  large  company  of  pro- 
slavery  men  commanded  by  Clay  Pate.  There  was 
a  hotly  contested  battle;  in  which  he  and  his  men 
were  victorious,  but  his  force  was  reduced  to  nine 
men,  some  were  killed  and  others  deserted  him. 
Pate  and  about  twenty  of  his  men  surrendered. 
Brown  exchanged  them  for  free-state  men.  His  son 
was  to  be  the  first  one  liberated.  Governor  Geary 
of  the  Lecompton  pro-slavery  legislature  was  doing 
all  in  his  power  to  intimidate  and  keep  out  free- 
state  settlers.  Finally  the  Southern  states  got  to- 
gether 2,700  men  to  make  a  final  attack  on  Law- 
rence, which  was  the  strong-hold  of  the  free-state 
people.  Brown  and  Lane  were  on  hand.  Many  of 
the  free-state  people  only  had  pikes  and  pitch-forks 


114  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

for  defense.  The  free-state  forces  were  assem- 
bled in  the  street  and  Old  John  Brown  made  a  short 
speech.  This  was  September  15th,  1856.  He  told 
the  men  this  was  their  last  opportunity  to  get  into 
a  fight  and  he  cautioned  them  about  taking  careful 
aim.  A  brass  cannon  was  brought  out  for  use. 
The  pro-slavery  men  saw  that  the  free-state  were 
in  dead  earnest  and  they  retreated.  This  was  a  de- 
cisive manifestation,  and  free- state  people  contin- 
ued to  pour  in  and  fill  up  the  territory.  Brown 
went  to  Iowa  and  enlisted  a  lot  of  young  men.  They 
were  Kagi,  Edwin  Copic  and  Edwin  Cook,  all  of 
Quaker  parentage  as  were  also  Reap,  Hinton,  Ste- 
phens and  Dwight  of  his  Kansas  fighters.  Ste- 
phens was  employed  to  drill  the  men  for  Captains. 
They  were  held  in  reserve,  as  it  wrill  be  seen  further 
on.  On  the  30th  of  August  Brown  returned  to  the 
Kansas  war-path  again,  under  the  leadership  of 
James  H.  Lane.  Brown  led  the  Kansas  cavalry. 
The  same  day  an  attack  was  made  on  Osawatomie 
by  a  band  of  400  Missouri  border  ruffians.  Their 
scouts  were  scouring  the  country  and  met  one  of 
Brown's  sons,  (Frederick)  in  a  road  that  led 
through  the  woods.  Fredrick  believed  them  to  be 
free-state  men,  but  was  shot  down  like  a  dog  with- 
out warning.  The  gang  that  murdered  the  boy  wras 
led  by  a  pro-slavery  Baptist  preacher  by  the  name 
of  White.  Another  man  was  murdered  about  the 
same  time.  Brown  was  several  miles  off.  He  had 
in  his  company  thirty  men  and  made  an  attack  on 
them  in  a  thick  woods,  which  resulted  in  the  kill- 
ing and  wounding  of  a  large  number  of  the  band. 


OLD  SANTA  Fs  TRAIL  115 

Their  scouts  killed  some  four  or  five  free-state  men. 
Brown  said  his  son  Jason  fought  bravely  by  his 
side.  The  former  was  struck  by  a  spent  ball  but 
it  did  him  no  serious  injury.  There  were  two  other 
fights  near  Osawatomie  in  which  he  fought  well  as 
a  bush-whacker.  The  object  of  Brown's  warfare 
was  well  understood  by  the  slaves  on  the  border 
and  they  would  go  to  him  for  protection  and  he  gave 
them  support.  He  and  his  sons  and  their  families 
had  suffered  greatly  from  the  Border  Ruffians. 
They  went  to  Kansas  writh  good  motives  and  no 
one  was  ever  molested  by  them  on  account  of  their 
sentiments,  while  attending  to  their  legitimate  av- 
ocations. ,The  Border  Ruffians  murdered  and  rob- 
bed innocent  settlers  simply  because  they  were 
emigrants  from  free-states.  He  and  his  sons  had 
suffered  terribly  and  his  son  Jason  had  been  rid- 
dled with  balls  unexpectedly  while  unarmed,  all  on 
account  of  the  Democratic  ^institution  of  slavery, 
which  he  was  so  conscientiously  opposed  to.  It  was 
no  wonder  the  ire  of  the  old  man  was  wrought  to  a 
red  heat.  He  took  on  himself  an  awful  oath  that 
from  that  time  henceforth  he  would  spend  his  re- 
maining days  fighting  the  slave  power;  so  he  took  a 
company  of  his  young  men  and  crossed  the  line 
into  Missouri.  A  slave  had  visited  him  and  inform- 
ed him  that  he,  wife*and  two  children  were  to  be 
sold  and  taken  away  the  following  day.  The  man 
plead  piteously  for  Brown  to  give  them  assistance. 
They  surrounded  the  house  and  made  the  master  a 
prisoner  and  then  went  to  other  houses  and  took 
eleven  slaves,  some  wagons,  horses  and  mules  to 


118  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

convey  them  in.  They  took  two  white  men  prison- 
ers and  reieased*thera  when  they  got  into  Kansas. 
The  slaves  they  took  up  through  Kansas,  Nebraska 
and  Iowa.  Brown's  theory  was  that  in  taking  the 
wagons  and  horses  they  were  taking  what  justly 
belonged  to  the  slaves;  at  any  rate  the  slaves  were 
entitled  to  transportation.  Enough  free-state 
people  were  found  along  the  line  to  give  them 
shelter.  It  was  mid  winter  and  their  travel  was 
very  slow  and  tedious.  Attawa  Jones,  an  Indian 
I  knew  well,  gave  Brown  shelter,  and  had  assisted 
him  many  times  before,  but  it  had  cost  him  nearly 
all  he  possessed.  Brown  reached  Chatham,  Cana- 
da, March  1859,  with  his  fugitives  alive  and  well. 
He  came  back  to  Cleveland,  Ohio,  and  sold  his 
horses  and  mules  at  public  sale.  He  had  sent  Cook 
to  Harper's  Ferry  some  time  before  he  went.  Cook 
became  popular  and  had  married  a  young  lady  in 
that  locality..  Brown  made  his  appearance  at 
Harper's  Ferry  about  the  1st  of  July  1859.  He  was 
accompanied  by  his  two  sons,  Owen  and  Oliver. 

I  always  felt  a  desire  to  visit  Harper's  Ferry.  I 
had  passed  the  place  several  times  but  always  in 
the  night  and  I  could  not  see  very  much  of  the 
town  from  the  train.  A  short  time  after  the  Civil 
War  I  made  my  arrangements  to  spend  a  day  at 
Harper's  Ferry.  I  never  spent  a  day  that  was  of 
more  interest.  It  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  ro- 
mantic places  that  can  be  found.  Here  the  She- 
nandoah  forms  a  junction  with  the  Potomac  river, 
the  forked  railroad  bridge,  Maryland  Heights,  with 
its  perpendicular  walls  facing  the  town,  Lowdon 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  117 

Heights  across  the  Potomac  river,  Camp  Hill,  on 
which  the  town  is  built  and  the  canal,  all  cluster  so 
close  together  that  all  may  be  taken  in  at  a  glance. 
I  employed  a  guide  and  ascended  to  the  top  of  Mary- 
land Heights  which  reaches  far  above  the  surround- 
ing country.  One  can  see  as  far  as  the  eye  can 
reach.  The  signal  pole  used  by  the  army  was 
still  standing.  Charleston,  six  miles  distant  in  the 
valley  was  in  plain  view.  On  my  arrival  it  wras 
scarcely  daylight  and  I  stood  and  gazed  around  at 
the  wonderful  place  for  quite  a  while.  I  went  to  a 
barber  shop  and  got  into  a  conversation  with  the 
barber,  and  found  him  to  be  an  inteligent  man.  I 
told  him  my  object  in  stopping  was  to  gather  infor- 
mation about  the  place  and  especially  incidents  in 
regard  to  the  John  Brown  insurrection.  I  found 
him  very  communicative,  and  he  gave  me  a  great 
deal  of  information,  and  said  he  was  a  prisoner  of 
Brown's  for  a  time.  I  met  a  Methodist  minister 
who  was  well  versed  on  the  subject,  and  he  took 
great  pains  in  telling  me  of  the  many  incidents 
that  took  place.  I  saw  the  armory  and  engine  house 
in  which  Brown  was  fortified  and  taken  prisoner. 
A  great  deal  that  I  have  written  so  far  I  have  taken 
from  history,  but  I  will  give  in  detail  the  story  that 
was  told  me  the  day  I  spent  in  that  memorable  place. 
When  Brown  and  his  two  sons  came  to  Harper's 
Ferry  they  gave  the  name  of  Isaac  Smith  and  sons, 
they  claimed  to  be  from  New  York.  They  rented 
a  farm  and  claimed  that  the  boys  were  going  into 
stock  trading,  and  the  old  gentleman  was  a  miner 
and  would  devote  his  time  to  prospecting  for  ore. 


118  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

He  spent  a  great  part  of  his  time  along  the  rivers 
and  clambering  over  the  hills.  The  men  who 
Brown  had  enlisted  spent  most  of  their  time  on  the 
farm  reading  and  playing  checkers.  Brown  sent 
for  his  daughter  and  a  daughter-in-law  to  keep 
house  on  the  farm.  During  this  time  Brown  was 
making  preparations,  he  was  shipping  arms  by 
wagons  to  the  farm  getting  in  readiness.  I  was  told 
that  Brown  organized  a  Sunday  School  and  served 
as  superintendent,  everyone  thought  he  was  a 
devout  Christian,  he  exercised  a  great  influence 
over  the  young  men  of  the  community.  He  often 
lectured  them  for  swearing  or  other  bad  habits;  I 
think  one  of  his  men  got  a  job  as  ferrymen.  In  the 
course  of  time  Brown  had  quite  a  store  of  guns 
and  pikes,  the  later  intended  for  arming  the  ne- 
groes who  he  had  expected  to  set  free  and  enlist  as 
soon  as  the  attack  was  made,  he  had  some  eighteen 
white  men  and  four  negro  men  in  concealment  at 
the  farm  house.  The  neighborhood  became  sus- 
picious that  all  was  not  right  at  old  Isaac  Smiths 
house.  A  good  many  strange  white  men  had  been 
seen  and  the  negroes,  they  supposed  were  run- 
away slaves,  being  harbored  there.  The  time 
had  about  come  when  a  blow  must  be  struck. 
There  was  considerable  objection  to  Brown's  plans, 
his  sons  even  was  opposed  to  it,  but  the  old  man 
was  as  firm  as  a  rock  and  nothing  was  left  to  do  but 
carry  out  his  plans.  All  this  time  Brown  was  con- 
ducting religious  meetings  at  the  little  school  house. 
On  October  the  18th,  a  Sunday  morning,  Brown 
was  up  early,  called  his  men  together  and  read  a 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  119 

chapter  from  the  Bible  and  made  a  fervent  prayer 
for  the  success  of  their  movement;  they  ate  break- 
fast and  Brown  made  a  statement  to  his  men.  He 
said  three  men  would  stay  and  guard  the  house,  he 
appointed  his  son  Owen,  Meriam  and  Coppoc,  all 
the  others  were  to  go  to  Harpers  Ferry  as  quietly 
as  possible.  Two  were  to  guard  the  Potomac 
bridge,  two  were  to  seize  the  ferry.  Instructions 
were  given  to  cut  the  telegraph  wires,  two  men 
were  to  guard  the  little  brick  engine  house,  a  com- 
pany would  take  possession  of  the  United  States 
Armory,  another  company  was  to  capture  the  rfflie 
works.  The  guards  were  made  prisoners,  by  that 
time  the  town  was  in  Brown's  possession.  During 
the  night  it  was  dark  and  it  had  rained  some,  many 
of  the  citizens  had  not  been  awakened.  The  clerk 
of  the  Armory  came  to  his  office  to  do  his  days 
work  and  found  everything  in  the  hands  of  a 
strange  force  of  men.  By  this  time  they  began  to 
understand  that  it  was  the  work  of  old  Isaac  Smith 
and  his  party.  Owen  Brown,  Barclay  and  Coppoc 
were  cut  off  while  trying  to  move  the  arms  from 
the  farm  and  fied  to  the  north,  all  the  rest  were 
either  killed  or  executed  on  the  gallows.  During 
the  day  there  was  a  large  force  of  citizens  who  had 
armed  themselves  and  had  surrounded  the  town. 
Brown's  men  killed  quite  a  number  of  citizens  and 
some  of  the  town  people  were  killed.  In  the  course 
of  the  day  several  companies  from  Maryland  and 
Virginia  arrived, and  at  the  same  time  the  guard 
at  the  rfflie  works  and  all  the  rest  were  either 
killed  or  captured  excepting  two  men  who  escaped. 


120  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

The  bodies  of  three  of  Brown's  men  were  badly 
mutilated  and  cast  into  the  river,  Brown  gathered 
his  wounded  men  and  conveyed  them  into  the  en- 
gine house  for  protection.     Six  men  were  all  he 
had  that  had  not  been  wounded.     Shots  were  fired 
through  the  port  holes  and  one  of  Brown's  sons 
was  shot  and  after  suffering  great  agony  died  in  a 
short  time.     Early  in  the  evening  Robert  E.  Lee 
and  Lieutenant  Stewart  arrived  from  Washington 
with  U.   S.   Marines.      They  entered  the  engine 
house  with  a  light  and  with  a  flag  of  truce,  Stewart 
at  once  recognized  Brown,  he  asked  if  he  was  not 
John  Brown  of  Kansas,  Brown  acknowledged  the 
identity.     It  was  stated  that  while  Lee  was  in  con- 
sultation with  Brown  that  one  of  Brown's  men 
came  into  the  engine  house  and  told  him  a  man  had 
just  been  killed  at  the  bridge,  stopped  talking  with 
Lee  and  asked  some  questions  and  said  it  is  my 
son  and  went  on  talking.     Brown's  son  who  had 
been  mortally  wounded  in  the  engine  house  was 
suffering  in  great  agony  and  plead  to  be  put  out  of 
his  misery,  and  Brown  turned  to  him  and  said  son 
be  more  patient,  die  like  a  man,  you  are  dying  in  a 
good  cause.      The  Marines  with  a  battering  ram 
knocked  down  the  engine  house  door  and  crowded 
into  the  room  when  Lieut.  Green  made  at  Brown 
with  a  sword  and  cutting  his  face  and  knocked  him 
down  and  inflicted  severe  wounds  at  first  believed 
would  prove  fatal,  by  that  time  Henry  S.  Wise,  Gov. 
of  Virginia  and  a  lot  of  reporters  entered  the  room. 
The  Gov.  asked  Brown  who  are  you  and  Brown 
said  we  are  abolitionists,  our  object  is  to  free  your 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TRAIL  121 

slaves.  A  great  crowd  gathered  around  him  and 
and  asked  many  questions,  about  who  sent  you 
here  and  Brown  said  no  one  sent  me.  How  long 
have  you  been  in  this  business,  his  answer  was  I 
have  always  been  opposed  to  slavery.  Brown  was 
told  by  Gov.  Wise  that  he  was  an  old  man  and  had 
better  prepare  to  meet  his  God,  for  if  the  wounds 
didn't  kill  him,  he  would  be  tried  and  executed. 
Brown  said  we  have  eternity  before  us  and  eternity 
behind  us  and  the  difference  between  the  alloted 
time  for  me  and  the  time  you  have  to  prepare  in 
this  world  is  but  a  moment  and  I  exhort  you  to 
prepare,  you  have  a  greater  responsibility  and  you 
had  better  be  ready.  Brown  was  taken  to  the 
Charleston  jail,  he  was  tried  and  convicted  for 
treason  and  sentenced  to  death.  The  trial  took 
place  at  Charleston  six  miles  from  Harpers  Ferry, 
was  opened  on  Oct.  26th,  the  verdict  was  read  Nov. 
2.  He  denounced  to  the  court  his  lawyers  plea  of 
insanity.  He  said  I  think  that  my  great  object  will 
be  nearer  accomplished  by  my  death  than  by  my 
life. 

On  the  appointed  day  Brown  was  taken  to  the 
gallows.  I  had  always  understood  by  reading  the 
accounts  that  Brown  rode  in  a  wagon,  and  it  was 
sometimes  stated  that  he  rode  on  his  coffin,  but 
they  told  me  at  Harper's  Ferry  that  he  asked  the 
privilege  to  wTalk  with  the  soldiers  to  the  place  of 
execution.  He  said  he  had  been  confined  so  long 
exercise  would  help  him,  he  was  allowed  to  walk} 
he  conversed  all  the  way.  He  said  he  enjoyed  the 
fresh  air.  He  spake  about  what  a  beautiful  valley 


122  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

it  was  and  said  if  he  was  farming  he  would  like  to 
own  a  farm  there.  He  spake  about  the  picturesque 
hills  it  reminded  him  of  Old  Connecticut. 

At  the  appointed  time  Brown  mounted  the  scaf- 
fold as  quietly  as  if  he  had  been  setting  up  to  din- 
ner, he  did  not  exhibit  the  least  excitement,  not  a 
muscle  moved,  not  the  least  nervous  excitement, 
his  last  moment  was  calm. 


CHAPTER  XXIV, 


JAMES  H.  LANE.. 


James  H.  Lane  was  born  in  Lawrenceburg,  Indi- 
ana, June  22d,  1814.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
and  served  as  a  member  of  the  city  council  of  Law- 
renceburg. He  enlisted  in  the  Mexican  War  and 
served  as  a  private  in  the  3rd  Regiment,  Ind.  Vols., 
but  was  chosen  Colonel  of  the  5th  regiment  and 
commanded  a  Brigade  in  the  battle  of  Beuna  Vista. 
He  was  elected  Lieutenant-Governer  of  Indiana  in 
1848.  and  in  1553-55  was  a  member  of  Congress. 
He  was  a  brother  of  Henry  S.  Lane.  He  went  to 
Kansas  in  1855  and  became  a  leader  in  the  free-state 
party,  and  was  active  in  driving  out  the  Missouri 
invaders.  He  was  prominent  in  the  affairs  of  Kan- 
sas, being  three  times  elected  United  States  Sena- 
tor. He  was  a  Brigadier  General  in  the  Civil  War, 
and  did  good  service  in  western  Missouri. 

During  the  Border  Ruffian  Warfare  in  Kansas  he 
was  the  acknowledged  leader  in  the  cause  of  free- 
dom for  Kansas;  he  fearlessly  faced  danger  and 
held  in  check  the  bands  of  Border  Ruffians  who 


124  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

were  scouring  the  country.  At  that  time  a  pro- 
slavery  capital  was  established  at  Lecompton  and 
Topeka  was  the  capital  of  the  free-state  party.  Gov- 
ernor Geary,  of  the  pro-slavery  party  was  con- 
stantly trying  to  reduce  increasing  free-state  pop- 
ulation, but  <kJim"  Lane  stood  guard  like  a  faithful 
watch-dog  and  protected  the  free-state  people  who 
went  to  Kansas,  in  good  faith,  to  establish  homes. 
They  had  taken  claims  and  were  breaking  prairie 
and  were  attending  to  their  own  business  and  did 
not  interfere  with  any  of  their  neighbors  on  ac- 
count of  a  political  difference.  The  Border  Ruffi- 
ans were  not  of  the  better  class  of  Southerners, 
but  were  of  a  lower  strata  and  cared  but  little  about 
the  real  sentiment  of  the  settlers.  They  were  bands 
of  organized  out-laws,  whose  only  motive  was  to 
drive  out  and  outrage  free-state  settlers.  When 
Lane  drove  them  out  of  one  locality  they  fled  to  an- 
other. They  were  not  long  in  finding  they  were 
confronted  by  John  Brown  and  Jim  Lane  who  were 
not  the  weak-kneed  Yankees  they  had  heard  so 
much  about.  They  had  been  told  by  men  who  were 
traveling  over  the  slave  states,  that  the  free-state 
people  were  cowardly  and  would  not  stand  fire;  but 
in  this  they  were  greatly  disappointed  after  they 
had  run  up  against  Brown  and  Lane,  and  others 
equally  as  brave,  but  of  less  notoriety.  Finally  the 
Missourians  and  other  Southerners  raised  a  force 
of  2,700  men  for  a  final  attack  an  the  anti- slavery 
strong  hold  of  Lawrence.  They  were  visited  by  the 
free-state  men  in  force.  Of  course  Lane  and  Brown 
were  there.  Brown  made  a  short  address  to  his 


OLD  SANTA  FE  TKAIL,  125 

men,  and  told  them  not  to  be  in  a  hurry,  to  wait  and 
be  quiet,  don't  yell  when  they  get  in  twenty-five 
yards.  Get  a  good  object,  be  sure  you  see  the 
hind  sight  of  your  gun  then  fire.  "Better  aim  at 
their  legs  than  their  heads,  be  sure  you  see  the 
hind  sights."  Gen.  Lane  put  Capt.  Brown,  with 
his  free-state  rangers  in  the  advance  guard.  Some 
of  Brown's  men  were  armed  with  pikes  and  pitch- 
forks, and  were  placed  in  the  rear.  A  brass  can- 
non was  brought  out  in  support.  There  was  but 
little  firing;  the  Missourians,  seeing  that  the  free- 
state  people  were  prepared  and  in  earnest,  with- 
drew in  good  order.  One  free-state  man  was  killed. 
By  this  time  so  many  free-state  people  had  poured 
into  the  territory  that  the  pro-slavery  party  could 
plainly  see  that  slavery  in  Kansas  was  an  impossi- 
bility. 

In  this  brief  history  of  James  H.  Lane  it  will  not 
be  expected  that  more  than  a  few  of  the  details  of 
the  story  can  be  given.  A  part  of  it  I  wrrite  from 
my  personal  recolection,  items  which  I  have  never 
seen  recorded  in  history,  and  which  I  believe  will 
be  in  order.  About  the  close  of  the  border  ruffian 
trouble  Lane  and  another  man  whose  name  I  can- 
not remember,  had  a  dispute  over  the  ownership  of 
a  claim  at  Lawrence.  Lane  had  built  a  house  and 
was  in  possession  of  it.  There  was  a  bitter  feeling 
existing  between  the  men.  The  man  would  visit 
Lane's  house  and  carry  water  from  the  well.  Lane 
finally  forbid  him  from  coming  inside  his  door  yard 
but  he  paid  no  attention  to  it  and  continued  to  get 
water  at  the  well,  so  Lane  nailed  up  the  front  gate. 


126  WHAT  I  SAW  ON  THE 

The  next  time  the  man  returned  with  two  other 
men,  all  three  were  armed.  Lane  stood  in  his  door 
with  his  revolver  in  hand  and  plead  with  the 
men  not  to  enter;  but  the  man  broke  open  the  gate 
advanced,  Lane  opened  fire  on  him,  and  they  fought 
a  regular  duel.  Lane  was  a  tall  slim  man  and  stood 
with  his  left  side  toward  the  man,  so  as  to  lessen 
the  chances  of  being  hit,  after  he  had  emptied  his 
revolver  he  stepped  back  into  the  room  and  took 
down  his  double  barrel  shot  gun  which  was  heavily 
loaded,  he  shot  the  man  dead.  Lane  was  given  a 
trial  and  was  acquitted,  partly  on  the  plea  of  self 
defense,  and  partly  because  he  was  confronting  a 
mob,  as  three  armed  men  constitutes  a  mob.  So 
on  this  testimony  the  court  exonerated  Lane  I  sup- 
pose; few  had  warmer  friends  or  worse  enemies 
vthan  Lane  had  in  Kansas,  but  on  the  whole  he  was 
popular.  The  free  state  people  never  forgot  the 
protection  he  gave  them  during  the  border  ruffian 
trouble.  He  seemed  to  be  very  successful  as  a 
politician,  I  do  not  remember  that  he  was  ever  de- 
feated when  he  run  for  office.  The  last  time  he 
was  elected  United  States  Senator  from  Kansas,  he 
was  elected  on  a  certain  issue,  but  I  do  not  re- 
member what  it  was. 

It  was  said  he  voted  against  the  issue  that  he  was 
elected  on,  which  caused  him  to  be  censured  by  his 
constituents.  When  he  returned  from  Washington 
he  met  with  a  cold  reception.  He  was  a  man  of 
great  sensibility,  and  his  health  was  somewhat  im- 
paired. At  Leavenworth  he  and  a  friend  took  a 
ride  to  the  country,  on  their  return  Lane's  friend 


OLD  SANTA  PE  TRAIL  127 

who  accompanied  him  halted  at  a  house  on  business 
and  left  Lane  sitting  in  the  buggy.  A  pistol  report 
was  heard,  Lane  had  committed  suicide.  So  ended 
the  life  of  a  brave  man,  who  had  accomplished 
much,  his  life  was  abruptly  ended.  His  mind  had 
become  unbalanced  on  account  of  poor  health.  He 
lost  hope  which  is  the  anchor  of  life. 


